Getting Management ’s Support through Storytelling 

 Challenge 

 I work in the Corporate Strategy department of a public agency that has a mission to build a people- centred land transport system . While our country does have one of the better land transport system   in the world , commuters are not without complaints . As such , we face enormous pressure to continue   improving connectivity and travel experience . With more on the plate , the first reaction of many group   directors was : ‘ Give me more manpower , and I will build it for you ! ’ The number of manpower   projected stands at 9,500 , a big increase from the current 6,500 . But the reality is that the public   service is facing resource constraint , in particular , a lack of engineers . We do not have the resources   to hire more manpower ; and even if we do , where do we find that many engineers ? 

 Now , this is an agency with more than 20 group directors , and most of them have been with the   organisation for more than 20 years . They have been getting what they want , and they do n’t seem to   be ready to review the number of manpower projected . We needed to get them in the frame of mind   that we no longer have the same luxury and that it is imperative to review our existing productivity   and capability . 

 Selection 

 We soon realized that this was a wicked problem – not just because we were dealing with   management , but because it required us to study how productive and capable our fellow colleagues   were , how supported our colleagues felt by our management and work environment , how clear our   organisation was with our priorities , and so on . It was not just to solve the problem of 9,500 but to   create a cause with our management to relook at the whole ecosystem of how we work . 

 There was a management retreat coming up where the management would learn that they were not   going to get the 9,500 they wanted . But we knew it could not be just an announcement . There would   be disagreement and tension upon learning this ‘ bad ’ news . We needed it to be as compelling and   convincing as possible ; we needed the management to understand why they could not be given that   many manpower ; we needed the management to see for themselves that they might not even need   that many manpower . As such , in order to sell this challenge , we decided to tell stories to add   emotional connection and create moment of reflection with our management . 

 Application & Insights 

 In order to tell a good story , we needed to gather stories . To start , we interviewed 20 colleagues from   various departments to find out the ‘ what is ’ and their unarticulated needs . It was immensely helpful   in helping us to reframe our resource challenge . We heard stories about how in order to ensure safety ,   a staff would act as the checker and another , the checker of the checker . That not only duplicated   resources , but also gave relatively less satisfaction to those two staff . We also heard stories about how   a lot of time spent was on searching for the right person in the right department for input , not just   because the organisation was so huge , but also many times , they refused to take the responsibility . In   addition , the interviewees were also asked to do journey mapping of their work life for a week ,   charting out the time spent on each activity of the day along with their feelings . 

 At the end of the interviews and synthesis of findings , we identified a few opportunities , including   reviewing organisational structure , leadership and culture , improving work processes and knowledge   management , and building capability and adopting technology in customer engagement and service   delivery . Our sensing was that our colleagues could have done a lot more if they were appropriately   supported by culture and processes – they did not require more manpower to share the workload .   Those were the stories we needed to let management hear , and to agree to undertake those   opportunities , rather than simply asking for more manpower . 

 At the management retreat , we showed management a video with sound bites from the interviews   and pictures of their journey maps . These stories were added in between the hard facts and data that   management wanted to add emphasis on the resource challenge that we were facing . To be honest ,   we were worried about their reactions at the following discussion segment . 

 The management was given time and space to address any agreement or disagreement . It was   structured in four aspects ( leadership & culture , technology , work processes , performance and   reward ) to give focus to their conversations . To our surprise , they were receptive to even the harsher   comments ( read : ‘ My group director has no respect at all ! ’ ) we quoted from our interviewees ! They   shared openly how it was timely to take a strategic pause and relook at how internally , as an   organisation , we could improve ourselves . ( In fact , as of now , we are already going to kick start ten   priority projects that leaders would undertake as part of continuous improvement for the   organisation . ) 

 At the end of discussion , we wanted them to rethink the number of manpower they really needed . To   help them visualize the shift , we created a life - size number line from 4,000 to 10,000 . To start ,   management was to stand at their respective current staff strength , then move to their initial ‘ new ’   number that they requested for , before moving to the revised number after they had heard the stories   and resource challenge . Again , to our surprise , many of them opted to reduce their numbers ! 

 Approach 

 The insights gathered through the interview and journey mapping helped us to put forward a   compelling story to our management , and helped to reframe the challenge . From a mere number   game , it was turned into a strategic review on our organisation . As importantly , we were one step   further in reframing our management ’s mindset and creating empathy in them . 

 This is definitely a good approach to adopt to ignite and unite people , especially for a big organisation   like ours . As we embark on the priority projects to improve our organisation , we will need to sell this   challenge to our fellow colleagues . We could continue using storytelling tool to share with others the   ‘ what is ’ , to open their minds to the ‘ what if ’ , to engage them to the ‘ what wows ’ , and to work with   them on the ‘ what works ’ . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
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: Getting Management ’s Support through Storytelling 

 Challenge 

 I work in the Corporate Strategy department of a public agency that has a mission to build a people- centred land transport system . While our country does have one of the better land transport system   in the world , commuters are not without complaints . As such , we face enormous pressure to continue   improving connectivity and travel experience . With more on the plate , the first reaction of many group   directors was : ‘ Give me more manpower , and I will build it for you ! ’ The number of manpower   projected stands at 9,500 , a big increase from the current 6,500 . But the reality is that the public   service is facing resource constraint , in particular , a lack of engineers . We do not have the resources   to hire more manpower ; and even if we do , where do we find that many engineers ? 

 Now , this is an agency with more than 20 group directors , and most of them have been with the   organisation for more than 20 years . They have been getting what they want , and they do n’t seem to   be ready to review the number of manpower projected . We needed to get them in the frame of mind   that we no longer have the same luxury and that it is imperative to review our existing productivity   and capability . 

 Selection 

 We soon realized that this was a wicked problem – not just because we were dealing with   management , but because it required us to study how productive and capable our fellow colleagues   were , how supported our colleagues felt by our management and work environment , how clear our   organisation was with our priorities , and so on . It was not just to solve the problem of 9,500 but to   create a cause with our management to relook at the whole ecosystem of how we work . 

 There was a management retreat coming up where the management would learn that they were not   going to get the 9,500 they wanted . But we knew it could not be just an announcement . There would   be disagreement and tension upon learning this ‘ bad ’ news . We needed it to be as compelling and   convincing as possible ; we needed the management to understand why they could not be given that   many manpower ; we needed the management to see for themselves that they might not even need   that many manpower . As such , in order to sell this challenge , we decided to tell stories to add   emotional connection and create moment of reflection with our management . 

 Application & Insights 

 In order to tell a good story , we needed to gather stories . To start , we interviewed 20 colleagues from   various departments to find out the ‘ what is ’ and their unarticulated needs . It was immensely helpful   in helping us to reframe our resource challenge . We heard stories about how in order to ensure safety ,   a staff would act as the checker and another , the checker of the checker . That not only duplicated   resources , but also gave relatively less satisfaction to those two staff . We also heard stories about how   a lot of time spent was on searching for the right person in the right department for input , not just   because the organisation was so huge , but also many times , they refused to take the responsibility . In   addition , the interviewees were also asked to do journey mapping of their work life for a week ,   charting out the time spent on each activity of the day along with their feelings . 

 At the end of the interviews and synthesis of findings , we identified a few opportunities , including   reviewing organisational structure , leadership and culture , improving work processes and knowledge   management , and building capability and adopting technology in customer engagement and service   delivery . Our sensing was that our colleagues could have done a lot more if they were appropriately   supported by culture and processes – they did not require more manpower to share the workload .   Those were the stories we needed to let management hear , and to agree to undertake those   opportunities , rather than simply asking for more manpower . 

 At the management retreat , we showed management a video with sound bites from the interviews   and pictures of their journey maps . These stories were added in between the hard facts and data that   management wanted to add emphasis on the resource challenge that we were facing . To be honest ,   we were worried about their reactions at the following discussion segment . 

 The management was given time and space to address any agreement or disagreement . It was   structured in four aspects ( leadership & culture , technology , work processes , performance and   reward ) to give focus to their conversations . To our surprise , they were receptive to even the harsher   comments ( read : ‘ My group director has no respect at all ! ’ ) we quoted from our interviewees ! They   shared openly how it was timely to take a strategic pause and relook at how internally , as an   organisation , we could improve ourselves . ( In fact , as of now , we are already going to kick start ten   priority projects that leaders would undertake as part of continuous improvement for the   organisation . ) 

 At the end of discussion , we wanted them to rethink the number of manpower they really needed . To   help them visualize the shift , we created a life - size number line from 4,000 to 10,000 . To start ,   management was to stand at their respective current staff strength , then move to their initial ‘ new ’   number that they requested for , before moving to the revised number after they had heard the stories   and resource challenge . Again , to our surprise , many of them opted to reduce their numbers ! 

 Approach 

 The insights gathered through the interview and journey mapping helped us to put forward a   compelling story to our management , and helped to reframe the challenge . From a mere number   game , it was turned into a strategic review on our organisation . As importantly , we were one step   further in reframing our management ’s mindset and creating empathy in them . 

 This is definitely a good approach to adopt to ignite and unite people , especially for a big organisation   like ours . As we embark on the priority projects to improve our organisation , we will need to sell this   challenge to our fellow colleagues . We could continue using storytelling tool to share with others the   ‘ what is ’ , to open their minds to the ‘ what if ’ , to engage them to the ‘ what wows ’ , and to work with   them on the ‘ what works ’ .
### Output: 