Storytelling and Learning

For ages, storytelling has been used to pass knowledge and learning from one generation to another. Stories can leave deep impression on mind that has potential to change value system and personality of an individual. For example, fables of Panchtantra have been used to teach practical wisdom and moral values. In fact, all of us had learnt our initial lessons of life through stories. We were taught not to lie through the tale of “the Boy who Cried Wolf” and till date we remember what the moral of the story was. What makes the stories so engaging and engrossing? The stories make us visualize the situations that invoke emotional response in our brain. When we recall any story, we not only recall the content & message but also the emotions that we felt when we heard the story first time. That’s why stories have been so effective in the learning process.

Imagine the impact on learning, if you are not just reading or listening to a story but living in it. You are not merely visualizing the characters but you are a character. I am not suggesting you to act in a play or movie, because in these the roles are pre-scripted. I am referring to a story in which you are a character and you are also scripting your role as you go through the story. You must be wondering how is it possible.

The answer is learning through business simulations. It has all the ingredients of an engrossing story i.e. a plot or situation, the setting or challenge, the characters who you have no control over and it unfolds according to how each character writes its own script. There are aha and oho moments! And there are déjà vu moments, “I have been through this before”, “This is what happens all the time” is what you hear from the characters. The emotions run high and that is when you hit the iron.

Some HR and L&D professionals question the efficacy of simulations, simply, because the setting of the simulation may differ from their actual business. It is not as much about the setting, products, organization, customers as about the emotions, experience and the learning at the end. While it is not meant to replace on the job learning, the business simulations have number of benefits, such as:

1.   It provides accelerated experiential learning.

2.   It is risk free – people are free to experiment, make errors and see what happens instead of being told about it.

3.   It provides holistic learning experience by connecting all the important dots, that may not be possible on-the-job.

4.   The learning is guided by experts therefore, has much better impact. The learning on the job is dependent on the manager who may be busy and may not have time or motivation to guide.

5.   It builds confidence and increases the chances of on the job success.

The Fresh Connection is one such business simulation, that has been used globally in 25 countries by 750 companies and more than 10,000 professionals for experiential learning in Value Chain Management. It helps to replace “silo thinking” with the "business thinking” and improves the decision making process by analyzing the facts, numbers instead of emotions or gut feel. The participants learn to align all decisions to common value chain strategy by balancing cross-functional trade-offs.

Read here what business leaders feel about their experience with The Fresh Connection.

If you are interested to try out the Fresh Connection, you may place your request here and if you would like to have a demonstration, you may contact here.