Tool : Storytelling at a company workshop about transformation 

 Challenge : Describe your challenge , including all relevant information . 

 I joined a new company , a traditional almost 100 - year - old distributor as person in charge for Digital   Transformation . One of my main assignments was to convince the organization of the importance of   eCommerce for the future as a distributor . eCommerce was something they were n’t familiar with   and so it as something impacting retail but not the B2B distribution space which was the area they   where working in . 

 Selection : In your own words , briefly describe the tool you selected 

 Storytelling is not the only tool I applied in my case , but I chose it for this assignment as it is a great   tool to engage with a diverse audience during the brainstorming ( what if ? ) phase . Stories are sticky   and tangible . People can relate to them much better than abstract models , theories and economical   concepts . Most of all a story can generate questions and questions expand the depth and breath of a   story , that ultimately lead to lots of innovative thoughts and ideas . 

 Application : Describe how you applied the tool you selected to your challenge 

 I applied the storytelling tool in several ways in my challenge . During a workshop with several work   colleagues I asked them to each share a story or experience they made with eCommerce and   shopping online . This was an ideal ice breaker and got everyone thinking . I then shared a bit of   background on the current status of eCommerce in our industry in different parts of the world and   to create a “ burning platform ” situation told a story about a company in a more developed market   that failed to transform and adopt to eCommerce and consecutively lost customers , relevance and   within a couple of years had to file for bankruptcy . After we discussed this case in various break   groups we focused on brainstorming what eCommerce could mean for us a company . We asked   ourselves what we change and impact we could have if we started to develop eCommerce   capabilities within our company . We again broke out in different groups with the task to come up   with different stories of what our company could look like in 3 years if we invested and adopted in   this new channel of business 

 Insight : Describe the insight you gained from applying the tool you selected to your challenge 

 I ’ve gained several insights form applying the story telling tool multiple times during my workshop . It   served as a great ice breaker , got people to relax and share something personal . This lowered the   barrier for people to openly collaborate and brainstorm together later . Which is sometimes tricky   especially when people come from different departments and are n’t used to work together . The   second time I used story telling was with the intention of creating awareness among the workshop   attendees that we need to act now as company . My main insight here was that stories can create a   sense of urgency that dry numbers , charts and growth rates alone ca n’t achieve as people ca n’t   relate to it as well . Therefore , I believe stories telling is ideal to create so called “ burning platforms ” .   The third insight I got was that if you assign people to work together and come up with a story that   captures a scenario of the future it gets people way more engaged than if they just have to come up   with a simple bullet point list of what they want to do or where they want to be in 3 years . Forcing   them to package it in a consistent story that resonated helped them to narrow down to some very   focused suggestions for innovation and transformation . 

 Approach : Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool you selected   or a different one -- and the reason(s ) why . 

 I would apply the tool again in a similar situation along with other tools that I did n’t mention here . I   would probably have the workshop participants prepare parts of their story in advance in order to   get the thought process starting a bit earlier . Also I ’m thinking about using small give aways and   having the teams vote for the story presented . Another tool that I would like to apply is the journey   mapping to illustrate how our customers ’ as well as our internal journeys / processes and operations   could change through new innovations and technology 


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: Tool : Storytelling at a company workshop about transformation 

 Challenge : Describe your challenge , including all relevant information . 

 I joined a new company , a traditional almost 100 - year - old distributor as person in charge for Digital   Transformation . One of my main assignments was to convince the organization of the importance of   eCommerce for the future as a distributor . eCommerce was something they were n’t familiar with   and so it as something impacting retail but not the B2B distribution space which was the area they   where working in . 

 Selection : In your own words , briefly describe the tool you selected 

 Storytelling is not the only tool I applied in my case , but I chose it for this assignment as it is a great   tool to engage with a diverse audience during the brainstorming ( what if ? ) phase . Stories are sticky   and tangible . People can relate to them much better than abstract models , theories and economical   concepts . Most of all a story can generate questions and questions expand the depth and breath of a   story , that ultimately lead to lots of innovative thoughts and ideas . 

 Application : Describe how you applied the tool you selected to your challenge 

 I applied the storytelling tool in several ways in my challenge . During a workshop with several work   colleagues I asked them to each share a story or experience they made with eCommerce and   shopping online . This was an ideal ice breaker and got everyone thinking . I then shared a bit of   background on the current status of eCommerce in our industry in different parts of the world and   to create a “ burning platform ” situation told a story about a company in a more developed market   that failed to transform and adopt to eCommerce and consecutively lost customers , relevance and   within a couple of years had to file for bankruptcy . After we discussed this case in various break   groups we focused on brainstorming what eCommerce could mean for us a company . We asked   ourselves what we change and impact we could have if we started to develop eCommerce   capabilities within our company . We again broke out in different groups with the task to come up   with different stories of what our company could look like in 3 years if we invested and adopted in   this new channel of business 

 Insight : Describe the insight you gained from applying the tool you selected to your challenge 

 I ’ve gained several insights form applying the story telling tool multiple times during my workshop . It   served as a great ice breaker , got people to relax and share something personal . This lowered the   barrier for people to openly collaborate and brainstorm together later . Which is sometimes tricky   especially when people come from different departments and are n’t used to work together . The   second time I used story telling was with the intention of creating awareness among the workshop   attendees that we need to act now as company . My main insight here was that stories can create a   sense of urgency that dry numbers , charts and growth rates alone ca n’t achieve as people ca n’t   relate to it as well . Therefore , I believe stories telling is ideal to create so called “ burning platforms ” .   The third insight I got was that if you assign people to work together and come up with a story that   captures a scenario of the future it gets people way more engaged than if they just have to come up   with a simple bullet point list of what they want to do or where they want to be in 3 years . Forcing   them to package it in a consistent story that resonated helped them to narrow down to some very   focused suggestions for innovation and transformation . 

 Approach : Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool you selected   or a different one -- and the reason(s ) why . 

 I would apply the tool again in a similar situation along with other tools that I did n’t mention here . I   would probably have the workshop participants prepare parts of their story in advance in order to   get the thought process starting a bit earlier . Also I ’m thinking about using small give aways and   having the teams vote for the story presented . Another tool that I would like to apply is the journey   mapping to illustrate how our customers ’ as well as our internal journeys / processes and operations   could change through new innovations and technology
### Output: 