Joey Boonstra Creative director November 2016 Storytelling for a renewed connection 

 Challenge I live in a small town of a regional area in the Netherlands . Population in this area is aging and shrinking ,   so social services and activities are diminishing as well . But there 's a public swimming pool and   playground that has been around for more than 50 years and that still has a role as of one of the living   center points of the village . In a fast changing environment it is meeting threats from competing   recreational facilities . The organization , run by young and old volunteers , has to be able to regain focus   and fulﬁll its role as an important center point of social engagement in the village and surrounding area .   As a professional in marketing and communications , I took it upon me to help the management and its   volunteers to what the positioning of the swimming pool / playground could be and how they would be   able to ( re-)connect with their audience . 

 Selection For this challenge , a few years back , I used two techniques : visualization and storytelling . And the latter   was -in retrospect- the most important one to use in this case . Because volunteers do the things they   do out of their hearts , it is difﬁcult to challenge their methods and ways that they are used to doing for   years . In order to achieve support and create change towards a common goal , it is not sufﬁcient to only   to listen to them and involve them . There has to be a common ground , a deﬁning essence , that they can   relate to and act upon . Storytelling is a powerful tool because it has the ability to envision basic human   emotion in a simple and effective way . It can touch them in the heart . 

 Application In the visualization of the old situation , one could clearly see that not only the swimming pool/ playground itself lacked proﬁle and focus in communications , the organization itself lacked focus as   well . There was more a sort of competition between several groups within the organization , than that   they had a clear understanding of for who they are doing what they do . And even more important , why   they are running the swimming pool / playground . So in order to get the same question in their mind , I   decided to work out the story of a family that I would present to the organization . It was about a couple   with two girls , age 5 and 9 , like my own children . In the summer they would come and visit the   swimming pool and enjoy themselves a whole day . From hanging around in the sun , swimming and   playing , to having a coffee on the terrace and the kids buying candy in the shop . Each family member   got the chance to tell something about their visits and what they enjoyed the most . The parents   reminisced about their own childhood , swimming and playing carefree . The girls always just had a great   time , being able to play and swim among other kids . The common factor in what was being told was that their carefree day , their enjoyment of lazy time was   made possible by the swimming pool / playground . And more important , made possible by the   volunteers who are always ready to help or greet them with a smile . To show and tell the organization a   story , made as small as possible , was a great way to get them re - acquainted with their target group .   And that in a way that everyone could understand and relate to because it was a recognition of their   every day volunteers work and what they enjoyed about that . 

 Insight and approach In this case I did n't have the chance to talk to a large group of volunteers . Normally our agency would   organize a few workshops to get in depth . Now , the ﬁeldwork was limited to a few interviews with some    volunteers . Some of them I 'm acquainted with on a private level . Therefore the organizational problem   was layed out pretty good . The facility itself I knew very well , as my family and myself are regular   visitors . To give the story more depth though , I 'd like to have done some interviews with visitors as well .   On the other hand , it was somehow told from ﬁrst hand experience . 

 In my daily line of work as a creative director at an agency I am already using design tools . But more in   the creative ﬁeld , in the creative parts of projects . On incidental levels we use them in organizational   fashion : in workshops or change management projects . This course gave me more insight in how to   improve complete projects as I have now a more holistic view on the matter . Design thinking is not   strictly reserved for the creative ﬁeld . It broadened my view on how the design management tools can   be deployed within the same project to get a coherent result . A great improvement is the strengthened   link with my co - workers from the marketing department . As I form a link between marketing and   creative , I think I have a better understanding of the cross teamwork in eachothers ﬁelds . 

 And last but not least : I became a volunteer at the swimming pool / playground ! 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Joey Boonstra
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: Joey Boonstra Creative director November 2016 Storytelling for a renewed connection 

 Challenge I live in a small town of a regional area in the Netherlands . Population in this area is aging and shrinking ,   so social services and activities are diminishing as well . But there 's a public swimming pool and   playground that has been around for more than 50 years and that still has a role as of one of the living   center points of the village . In a fast changing environment it is meeting threats from competing   recreational facilities . The organization , run by young and old volunteers , has to be able to regain focus   and fulﬁll its role as an important center point of social engagement in the village and surrounding area .   As a professional in marketing and communications , I took it upon me to help the management and its   volunteers to what the positioning of the swimming pool / playground could be and how they would be   able to ( re-)connect with their audience . 

 Selection For this challenge , a few years back , I used two techniques : visualization and storytelling . And the latter   was -in retrospect- the most important one to use in this case . Because volunteers do the things they   do out of their hearts , it is difﬁcult to challenge their methods and ways that they are used to doing for   years . In order to achieve support and create change towards a common goal , it is not sufﬁcient to only   to listen to them and involve them . There has to be a common ground , a deﬁning essence , that they can   relate to and act upon . Storytelling is a powerful tool because it has the ability to envision basic human   emotion in a simple and effective way . It can touch them in the heart . 

 Application In the visualization of the old situation , one could clearly see that not only the swimming pool/ playground itself lacked proﬁle and focus in communications , the organization itself lacked focus as   well . There was more a sort of competition between several groups within the organization , than that   they had a clear understanding of for who they are doing what they do . And even more important , why   they are running the swimming pool / playground . So in order to get the same question in their mind , I   decided to work out the story of a family that I would present to the organization . It was about a couple   with two girls , age 5 and 9 , like my own children . In the summer they would come and visit the   swimming pool and enjoy themselves a whole day . From hanging around in the sun , swimming and   playing , to having a coffee on the terrace and the kids buying candy in the shop . Each family member   got the chance to tell something about their visits and what they enjoyed the most . The parents   reminisced about their own childhood , swimming and playing carefree . The girls always just had a great   time , being able to play and swim among other kids . The common factor in what was being told was that their carefree day , their enjoyment of lazy time was   made possible by the swimming pool / playground . And more important , made possible by the   volunteers who are always ready to help or greet them with a smile . To show and tell the organization a   story , made as small as possible , was a great way to get them re - acquainted with their target group .   And that in a way that everyone could understand and relate to because it was a recognition of their   every day volunteers work and what they enjoyed about that . 

 Insight and approach In this case I did n't have the chance to talk to a large group of volunteers . Normally our agency would   organize a few workshops to get in depth . Now , the ﬁeldwork was limited to a few interviews with some    volunteers . Some of them I 'm acquainted with on a private level . Therefore the organizational problem   was layed out pretty good . The facility itself I knew very well , as my family and myself are regular   visitors . To give the story more depth though , I 'd like to have done some interviews with visitors as well .   On the other hand , it was somehow told from ﬁrst hand experience . 

 In my daily line of work as a creative director at an agency I am already using design tools . But more in   the creative ﬁeld , in the creative parts of projects . On incidental levels we use them in organizational   fashion : in workshops or change management projects . This course gave me more insight in how to   improve complete projects as I have now a more holistic view on the matter . Design thinking is not   strictly reserved for the creative ﬁeld . It broadened my view on how the design management tools can   be deployed within the same project to get a coherent result . A great improvement is the strengthened   link with my co - workers from the marketing department . As I form a link between marketing and   creative , I think I have a better understanding of the cross teamwork in eachothers ﬁelds . 

 And last but not least : I became a volunteer at the swimming pool / playground !
### Output: 