PEER - GRADED ASSIGNMENT : REFLECTION ( STORYTELLING ) 

 Challenge 

 I work in Corporate Strategy in a mid - sized bank , and part of the day - to - day responsibilities of my 

 job requires me and my team to source for , analyse , and present large amounts of data which is 

 spooled from several external and internal sources . The information gained from this data is 

 intended to drive business decisions amongst staff at all levels of the organization , and by 

 extension , guide the bank down the path towards the attainment of pre - determined performance 

 metrics . This , in summary , means that we have to generate numerous reports curated for staff at 

 various levels of clearance — and quite often — intellectual capability . 

 Unfortunately , we came to discover that , while the reports we generated and shared did drive 

 considerable discussions among all the parties concerned , they hardly ever translated into any 

 real action on the part of management and staff alike . Even when they did lead to organizational 

 action , the moves taken could just as often lead down an entirely unforeseen ( on our part ) and 

 unintended tangent as lead down one which we had judged to be the best for the business . 

 Needless to say , this was not the best situation for the bank to be in . In fact , it was not a desirable 

 situation at all . 

 My team and I were rather flummoxed by this state of affairs , particularly in light of the fact that it 

 meant that we were investing a lot of time and resources on projects that were not yielding 

 tangible results . In the eyes of Management , we were underperforming . We were certain that the 

 underlying problem was not a paucity of reports , as we were producing , on average , five reports 

 a week which was above the assigned target for the team . We had seen these reports sent out and 

 had also sat in on a number of meetings where these reports were discussed , often heatedly , so 

 we could also rule out the possibility of the receivers not receiving , or being unaware of , the 

 reports . In order to get to the root of things , we decided to employ the principles of design thinking 

 to solve the problem , which would also involve engaging all the stakeholders involved . 

 Selection & Application 

 The first step was the stakeholder engagement , which we executed in a face - to - face meeting with 

 the Heads of various departments . This engagement revealed that , while the reports were being 

 received regularly , the barrage of numbers and charts often left too much room open for multiple 

 interpretations , and this meant that receivers would then have to spend large amounts of time 

 debating the meaning(s ) of the presentation , hence the many opinions that then led to the 

 protracted discussions that would in turn stall action . It was a simple lack of clarity of meaning . 

 When this became clear , we decided to employ the design thinking tool of storytelling as we were 

 going to have to work to generate a single story that would be more in line with our — and the 

 businesses’—goals and corporate vision . We believed storytelling would be right tool because it 

 would drive engagement , interest , and would compel the right kind of action more easily . With 

 this in mind , we undertook to include summary slides , which would explain , in succinct , clear 

 language , the major takeaways ( particularly as regards performance and other items of interest ) . 

 The attached text could take the form of “ Deposits grew by XX% over the period due to xxx ” and 

 this would save the time that would have been spent in arguing about why the deposits went up 

 in the first place . This was an effective application of the storytelling tool , as we were telling stories 

 about what the data was saying . 

 Insight 

 This was the right approach to take , as almost immediately we began to see improvements in the 

 reactions of receivers . First of all , meeting times shortened considerably , and it became much 

 easier to guide staff down courses of action that were in line with the bank ’s corporate vision and 

 strategy . We began to see results that were more in line with our aspirations , as the addition of a 

 single , crafted story made for easier and more unified understanding and freed up time that could 

 then be used for other , more fulfilling , activities . It was a win - win situation for all . 

 Approach 

 This design thinking course made my team and I see and approach our problem in a different way , 

 as our original method had been too formulaic and insufficient for the needs it was to meet . Now , 

 instead of just rushing to send out charts and figures , we take the time to plan properly and think 

 of stories that would galvanize staff and drive corporate action . 


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: PEER - GRADED ASSIGNMENT : REFLECTION ( STORYTELLING ) 

 Challenge 

 I work in Corporate Strategy in a mid - sized bank , and part of the day - to - day responsibilities of my 

 job requires me and my team to source for , analyse , and present large amounts of data which is 

 spooled from several external and internal sources . The information gained from this data is 

 intended to drive business decisions amongst staff at all levels of the organization , and by 

 extension , guide the bank down the path towards the attainment of pre - determined performance 

 metrics . This , in summary , means that we have to generate numerous reports curated for staff at 

 various levels of clearance — and quite often — intellectual capability . 

 Unfortunately , we came to discover that , while the reports we generated and shared did drive 

 considerable discussions among all the parties concerned , they hardly ever translated into any 

 real action on the part of management and staff alike . Even when they did lead to organizational 

 action , the moves taken could just as often lead down an entirely unforeseen ( on our part ) and 

 unintended tangent as lead down one which we had judged to be the best for the business . 

 Needless to say , this was not the best situation for the bank to be in . In fact , it was not a desirable 

 situation at all . 

 My team and I were rather flummoxed by this state of affairs , particularly in light of the fact that it 

 meant that we were investing a lot of time and resources on projects that were not yielding 

 tangible results . In the eyes of Management , we were underperforming . We were certain that the 

 underlying problem was not a paucity of reports , as we were producing , on average , five reports 

 a week which was above the assigned target for the team . We had seen these reports sent out and 

 had also sat in on a number of meetings where these reports were discussed , often heatedly , so 

 we could also rule out the possibility of the receivers not receiving , or being unaware of , the 

 reports . In order to get to the root of things , we decided to employ the principles of design thinking 

 to solve the problem , which would also involve engaging all the stakeholders involved . 

 Selection & Application 

 The first step was the stakeholder engagement , which we executed in a face - to - face meeting with 

 the Heads of various departments . This engagement revealed that , while the reports were being 

 received regularly , the barrage of numbers and charts often left too much room open for multiple 

 interpretations , and this meant that receivers would then have to spend large amounts of time 

 debating the meaning(s ) of the presentation , hence the many opinions that then led to the 

 protracted discussions that would in turn stall action . It was a simple lack of clarity of meaning . 

 When this became clear , we decided to employ the design thinking tool of storytelling as we were 

 going to have to work to generate a single story that would be more in line with our — and the 

 businesses’—goals and corporate vision . We believed storytelling would be right tool because it 

 would drive engagement , interest , and would compel the right kind of action more easily . With 

 this in mind , we undertook to include summary slides , which would explain , in succinct , clear 

 language , the major takeaways ( particularly as regards performance and other items of interest ) . 

 The attached text could take the form of “ Deposits grew by XX% over the period due to xxx ” and 

 this would save the time that would have been spent in arguing about why the deposits went up 

 in the first place . This was an effective application of the storytelling tool , as we were telling stories 

 about what the data was saying . 

 Insight 

 This was the right approach to take , as almost immediately we began to see improvements in the 

 reactions of receivers . First of all , meeting times shortened considerably , and it became much 

 easier to guide staff down courses of action that were in line with the bank ’s corporate vision and 

 strategy . We began to see results that were more in line with our aspirations , as the addition of a 

 single , crafted story made for easier and more unified understanding and freed up time that could 

 then be used for other , more fulfilling , activities . It was a win - win situation for all . 

 Approach 

 This design thinking course made my team and I see and approach our problem in a different way , 

 as our original method had been too formulaic and insufficient for the needs it was to meet . Now , 

 instead of just rushing to send out charts and figures , we take the time to plan properly and think 

 of stories that would galvanize staff and drive corporate action .
### Output: 