In this live Story Spark session, facilitator Haritosh Srivastav leads participants through Prompt #15 – “What’s a memorable feedback you have received?” The group shares personal anecdotes that illustrate how feedback shaped their confidence, work habits, and aspirations. Harsha recounts an anonymous comment praising his short film “Bluetooth” and declaring he will become a great Telugu director, which boosted his self‑belief. Haritosh shares three distinct memories: a manager’s reminder to avoid repeating mistakes, a boss’s commendation that his team loves his work, and a strict Spanish client’s request for “clones” of him, each reinforcing professional growth. Dr. Alka contributes two stories: a young boy urging her to put more heart into her speech, and a veteran telling her her speech was of international caliber, prompting her to aim higher. Throughout, Haritosh emphasizes the value of collecting stories, building confidence, and stepping out of comfort zones. The session ends with encouragement to keep learning, growing, and gathering stories for future sessions.
Chapters
Awesome! So welcome to day 14 of Story Spark Session, and we are in week 3 of this whole Storython that is going on. So this week, as we did the session yesterday, is all about collecting and finding stories. So for today's session, I have selected one of the prompts that we shared. So we shared the 50 prompts in the group. So one of the prompts that I shared, we are going to go and go through the prompt. I will share the prompt in a minute, and I want you to have an open mind and think about all the things that has happened and collect the story. So let me share my screen with the prompt. I've chosen prompt number 15 in the prompt. Which is, what's a memorable feedback you have received? So now, this feedback could be a personal feedback, it could be a professional feedback. You got it from your teacher, you got it from your manager, you got it from your peers, you got it from your juniors. So let's go through this and let's spend a few minutes Thinking about a memorable feedback we have received. Yes, go ahead.
And feedback from an unknown person, from which is a comment for my Bluetooth short film.
Yes, it is.
I remember according to my memory, Bluetooth is a wonderful film made by you. You will become one day a great director in Telugu film industry. I don't know the viewer name and I forgotten. Is unknown person. Yeah, but the comment is, 'Blood is a wonderful film made by you. One day you will become a great director,' is my feedback. It's a wonderful feedback.
Amazing, amazing. And what did it make you feel?
I felt very happy and, uh, I got confidence. I had a doubt whether I'll become or I won't become a film director. But definitely after seeing this comment, I got confidence and believe on me, self-belief increased.
Absolutely. And I know you're doing great work. So yeah, thank you for sharing. That's a great, uh, great reflection of— because sometimes we don't stop and realize the feedback that we receive. And I was also going through this exercise and I could remember 3 different stories. So I'll try to quickly cover all the 3. So first one is in my very first year of my corporate job when I started, my manager and I used to do some small silly mistake and he says, Haritosh Srivastav, I don't care if you're making mistake, but I don't want you to make the same mistake twice. And that was a big aha moment that yeah, I became more conscious of not making the same mistake. If I'm making new mistake, that's good, but I shouldn't be making the same mistake twice. The second was later in my career when I was leading a team of about 12 people, and one day my boss boss came and said, "I am taking feedback from lot of team members, and I must compliment you because your team absolutely love what you do." So I thought that was a great feedback, and that's what I'll be working towards. And third one, was this Spanish client. Yeah, Spanish client I was working with, and she was known to be very notorious and strict, but she was very impressed by my work, so much so that she said to manager in front of me that, no, I don't want anything else, I just want clones of Haritosh Srivastav for my project. So that was a great compliment. So yeah, those are great memories. And hi, Dr. Alka, I think you just joined.
Yeah, I could not register. I was— I've been struggling to register for a very long time. I don't understand what happened.
So we are in week 3 now, and this week, as we went through the Storython, is all about collecting the stories. So I will be randomly choosing prompts or story bank to reflect on. So today I chose this prompt number 15, which is, what's a memorable feedback you have received? So, so Harsha shared a story about his feedback of getting great feedback from an unknown person about becoming a Telugu movie director, and I shared 3 stories. Any story that you can remember about a feedback that you have received Dr.
Alka?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have received like, um, so I think I feel that I am the best storyteller in the world, and I feel like that sometimes. And recently I was in Bangalore— not Bangalore, I was in Singapore.
Yeah.
And there I was asked to give a speech in the morning, early morning speech, and I thought I did a good job. And after some time, one young boy, he comes to me and he says that I want to speak to you something. So I said, yeah, what is it? So he says that I want to, I want to tell you that you should be putting more heart in your speech. So that gave me— sometimes, you know, when we have less of time, we are rushing through our speech, and we are giving less of the, less of our heart. It's like a mugged up speech we have already prepared. So I think it's good to go slow and give more of the heart. That was a good thing that he told me.
Absolutely amazing story. And yes, not all feedbacks are positive or, or, you know, over the top. It could also be the hard and bitter feedback as well at times, and that help us improve as well. So yep, that is day 14 of StorySpark session. As you all of you have access to the prompts, I'm talking about the Confidence Storytelling Hub. What we'll do in this week is pick up randomly different prompts or different other things outside, and the focus would be about collecting different stories. So please keep collecting your stories because stories are gold, stories are diamond, and stories have the power to change not only you but your audience. So that's it. How did it make you feel, Harsha? When you, when you revisited your story?
Thank you. It's very exciting and awesome feeling. I'm— I got confidence. Mainly thing is I had a doubt before that, but after that I got confidence. One day I will become a director, film director. That is the feeling.
Yep, you're already in the process. We can see that. How about you all?
What was Harsha's feedback? If you can tell me in short.
Bluetooth is a wonderful film made by you. Madam, it is a comment from my short film.
Okay, okay.
Uh, that comment is Bluetooth is a wonderful film made by you. You will become one day great director. In Telugu film industry. I know I forgot the name of the viewer who commented it, but I remember the words. I am a short filmmaker, madam.
Wow, I didn't know that. Thank you and congratulations to you. Wish you all the best.
Yeah, thank you.
I think one or two weeks back, Harsha also shared the story, narrated the story of How Bluetooth is like love, and it was very interesting. So yeah, maybe sometime else you can again improvise and share again with the group or create a video. Or you can also— I think it's a Telugu movie, but you can think about either narrating it in English or creating a different version of it altogether. So yeah, thank you. Awesome.
And what about you, Haritosh Srivastav? What was your feedback?
Yeah, so I had 3 feedback that I could remember. So first one was in my very first year of joining the corporate world. I used to make a lot of silly mistakes, so, and one day my manager said that, Haritosh Srivastav, I don't care how many mistakes you make, but I don't want you to make the same mistake twice. And that was the bulb on for me, like, yes, I need to be more careful. I should be making different mistakes, not the same mistakes. The second one was when I started as a team leader and I was handling a team of about 12 people. And one day my boss boss came and said, no, I want to really commend you because I have been taking feedback from a lot of team members and I must tell you, your team absolutely love what you do. So I was like, okay, thank you for that feedback. And third one was from a client a few years back. It was a Spanish client and she was known to be very notorious, strict, but she liked my work. So one day in front of my manager, in front of me, she said to my manager, I don't want anything else, I just want clones of Haritosh because he's doing so good. I just want the— can you make a clone of him and share? So that was a few feedback. Yeah, one was a little bit bittersome and there were a couple more good feedback. So yep.
Clones of Haritosh Srivastav. Wow, wonderful, wonderful. So nice to hear your story.
Thank you, thank you so much. And more than me, it's all about us. So how did you feel about this activity?
So after hearing both your stories, I was thinking, I think it was about 10 or 15 years back, I gave a speech to somebody. Whatever came in my heart, I told. And that person was a veteran, and he told me, this speech is not for these people, this speech is for an international level. So I have to, I have to, I'm, I'm moving towards that now. So let me move more towards that. Yeah, absolutely.
You're still living up to that expectation. And actually, it's good when some people set very high standard for us, we work towards getting that. Yeah, awesome. So that is Time is 6:14, so that is it for the Story Spark session.
Thank you.
So as I say every time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep going out of your comfort zone. We'll meet tomorrow again for the next Story Spark session with maybe another prompt or something else. Have a great day and see you tomorrow.
