Reflection Storytelling 

 ( Nathan Kumar ) 

 Context   I work for a government agency that promote a culture and holistic system of lifelong learning   through the pursuit of skills mastery , and strengthen the ecosystem of quality education and   training . The challenge is a lot of our initiatives and programmes are through an individual- targeted strategy ( think B2C model ) and we ’re now developing a enterprise - targeted strategy   ( think B2B model ) .     Challenge   I chose to use the tool storytelling to achieve a shared understanding of a problem space   among a diverse group of stakeholders who view the challenge of skills mastery from very   different starting points .      The first step I took was to define who are stakeholders are . Our stakeholders inside the   agency included the various departments such as the middle and back offices and critically   the policy owners who had to understand a new mode of engaging with enterprise . Whereas   our stakeholders outside the agency include the training providers , the educational institutes   and the individuals who now have to be viewed as employees instead of individuals .      The second step I took was to identify , articulate and define the ‘ what is ’ existing state of the   problem . I articulated 2 key points in my story : the emotional reason why we needed to have   employees pursue skills master and the larger purpose of workforce development . In the   context of a retail business owner , I painted a situation where we continued on our individual- targeted strategy ( i.e. the individual learns e - commerce skills ) but the employer is not in   support of training the staff as they believe in the traditional means of doing their work ( i.e. via   a brick - and - mortar business model ) and there ’s conflict as the individual does n’t feel motivated ,   valued or supported to execute their job .      Selection   I chose to use the tool storytelling as it has the ability to connects the stakeholders to the   emotions , the characters , the values that we want all to feel . This can then be linked back to   the purpose of why each party works or partners the government agency and gives them a   sense of why they do what they do .      The third step I took was to storyboard and following the three rules raised in the lecture .   These three rules include : 

 1 . identifying is who 's your audience ,   2 . demonstrating a clear sequence of events , and    3 . having moments of reflection . 

 Asking the stakeholders to rank who was responsible for the training of the staff , all   unanimously pointed to the employer . Understanding that the employer was the key audience   that we wanted action from , we then explore what was their customer journey in the thinking   through why they would or would not send their staff for training . I drew from existing materials   such as research publications , opinion survey , audit reports from other countries on why   employers are not sending their staff from training . I also conducted informal interview with   the employers I know who both did and did not commit their staff to any form of training   allowing them to have a moment of reflection . 

 Application    The fourth step I took was to expand further on the “ moments of reflection ” , I decided to raise   questions to all internal and external stakeholders that Paul VanDeCarr 1 asked around   audience motivation , these include : 

 •   What do we want to achieve ? 

 •   How do we reach our target audiences ? 

 •   Who can help us achieve our goals ? 

 •   And what stories do I tell them , or ask them to tell ? 

 I then curated representation from various stakeholders to represent different organization or   area of interest . Each group receives post - it notes that that they can write on directly or raise   more questions to delve deeper around motivations . As each stakeholder articulated their   perspective , I record commonalities in the insights of each group , and then additional   insights came from earlier secondary literature . I then developed a 400 - word narrative with   sound bites and quotes that combines the shared and new insights from the group   discussion around motivation for sending staff for training and played that back to the same   group to get further insights .      Insights & Approach   The fifth step we took was to develop the stories further with visual support and   dramatization . I explored the idea further with our communication ’s team who then roped in   film makers who managed to portray the everyday struggles of a local business in real and   relatable ways , which then drives conversation and engagement with audiences . I found that   with dramatization of the narrative , together with audio visual editing , it further pierced into   employers to embody the importance of lifelong learning and skills mastery .      The sixth and final step I took was to work with the team to publish the new employer video .   The final product of the video can be viewed here : https://www.viddsee.com/video/bak-gia- eyeglasses / ks31k where the 400 - word narrative was picked up to drive the storyboard for this   video . Embracing the use of dialect which is commonly used by the local   enterprises , ‘ Bak   Gia ’ ( Hokkien for ‘ eyeglasses ’ ) is the story of a senior optician who refuses to embrace social   media , until a younger shop assistant shows him how it can save his business .      Since publishing the video , I ’ve noticed many employers who watch the video recognise the   importance of keeping up with times and how sending their staff for training can benefit their   business model . The story has lent itself to resonate with the audience ’s emotions and I ’ve   witness many tear - jerking momemnts . Since discovering the merits of storytelling , next time I   would incorporate an immediate call - to - action in the video by directing them to our website   to learn more or pledge their support for training . 

 1 https://www.rapidtables.com/tools/notepad.html 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Nathan Kumar
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection Storytelling 

 ( Nathan Kumar ) 

 Context   I work for a government agency that promote a culture and holistic system of lifelong learning   through the pursuit of skills mastery , and strengthen the ecosystem of quality education and   training . The challenge is a lot of our initiatives and programmes are through an individual- targeted strategy ( think B2C model ) and we ’re now developing a enterprise - targeted strategy   ( think B2B model ) .     Challenge   I chose to use the tool storytelling to achieve a shared understanding of a problem space   among a diverse group of stakeholders who view the challenge of skills mastery from very   different starting points .      The first step I took was to define who are stakeholders are . Our stakeholders inside the   agency included the various departments such as the middle and back offices and critically   the policy owners who had to understand a new mode of engaging with enterprise . Whereas   our stakeholders outside the agency include the training providers , the educational institutes   and the individuals who now have to be viewed as employees instead of individuals .      The second step I took was to identify , articulate and define the ‘ what is ’ existing state of the   problem . I articulated 2 key points in my story : the emotional reason why we needed to have   employees pursue skills master and the larger purpose of workforce development . In the   context of a retail business owner , I painted a situation where we continued on our individual- targeted strategy ( i.e. the individual learns e - commerce skills ) but the employer is not in   support of training the staff as they believe in the traditional means of doing their work ( i.e. via   a brick - and - mortar business model ) and there ’s conflict as the individual does n’t feel motivated ,   valued or supported to execute their job .      Selection   I chose to use the tool storytelling as it has the ability to connects the stakeholders to the   emotions , the characters , the values that we want all to feel . This can then be linked back to   the purpose of why each party works or partners the government agency and gives them a   sense of why they do what they do .      The third step I took was to storyboard and following the three rules raised in the lecture .   These three rules include : 

 1 . identifying is who 's your audience ,   2 . demonstrating a clear sequence of events , and    3 . having moments of reflection . 

 Asking the stakeholders to rank who was responsible for the training of the staff , all   unanimously pointed to the employer . Understanding that the employer was the key audience   that we wanted action from , we then explore what was their customer journey in the thinking   through why they would or would not send their staff for training . I drew from existing materials   such as research publications , opinion survey , audit reports from other countries on why   employers are not sending their staff from training . I also conducted informal interview with   the employers I know who both did and did not commit their staff to any form of training   allowing them to have a moment of reflection . 

 Application    The fourth step I took was to expand further on the “ moments of reflection ” , I decided to raise   questions to all internal and external stakeholders that Paul VanDeCarr 1 asked around   audience motivation , these include : 

 •   What do we want to achieve ? 

 •   How do we reach our target audiences ? 

 •   Who can help us achieve our goals ? 

 •   And what stories do I tell them , or ask them to tell ? 

 I then curated representation from various stakeholders to represent different organization or   area of interest . Each group receives post - it notes that that they can write on directly or raise   more questions to delve deeper around motivations . As each stakeholder articulated their   perspective , I record commonalities in the insights of each group , and then additional   insights came from earlier secondary literature . I then developed a 400 - word narrative with   sound bites and quotes that combines the shared and new insights from the group   discussion around motivation for sending staff for training and played that back to the same   group to get further insights .      Insights & Approach   The fifth step we took was to develop the stories further with visual support and   dramatization . I explored the idea further with our communication ’s team who then roped in   film makers who managed to portray the everyday struggles of a local business in real and   relatable ways , which then drives conversation and engagement with audiences . I found that   with dramatization of the narrative , together with audio visual editing , it further pierced into   employers to embody the importance of lifelong learning and skills mastery .      The sixth and final step I took was to work with the team to publish the new employer video .   The final product of the video can be viewed here : https://www.viddsee.com/video/bak-gia- eyeglasses / ks31k where the 400 - word narrative was picked up to drive the storyboard for this   video . Embracing the use of dialect which is commonly used by the local   enterprises , ‘ Bak   Gia ’ ( Hokkien for ‘ eyeglasses ’ ) is the story of a senior optician who refuses to embrace social   media , until a younger shop assistant shows him how it can save his business .      Since publishing the video , I ’ve noticed many employers who watch the video recognise the   importance of keeping up with times and how sending their staff for training can benefit their   business model . The story has lent itself to resonate with the audience ’s emotions and I ’ve   witness many tear - jerking momemnts . Since discovering the merits of storytelling , next time I   would incorporate an immediate call - to - action in the video by directing them to our website   to learn more or pledge their support for training . 

 1 https://www.rapidtables.com/tools/notepad.html
### Output: 