Story Spark Day 24 Interview Storytelling

Awesome. So welcome to day 24 of StorySpark session, and this next few days we'll be talking about the applications of storytelling. So today's application that I've chosen is about interviews. You see, whether it's going for a job interview, promotion interview, or going for a podcast interview, appearing on a YouTube video, interview storytelling, or interviews is something that we all encounter from time to time. And there are a lot of questions that ask us to reflect, that ask us to provide the experience, and that is where this framework that I'm going to talk about is going to come handy. This is a very famous framework called STAR framework, and we are going to see the STAR framework, and then I am also going to show you some prompts on the screen, and you can choose from one of the prompts and use the STAR framework to create a storytelling, to create a story and share, and then we'll do the reflection and we'll end with affirmation. So that's the power pack session for today. So what is the STAR framework? STAR is basically an acronym. So whenever you are asked questions in interviews, you can use this framework. So S stands for situation. So anytime you're giving an answer to an interview, a question which is more reflective, a question which is more subjective, not objective— of course not for technical question, like for example leadership questions. Or your question related to your difficulties, your strengths, and things like that, you can use this. So S stands for situation. You need to set the context. What was happening? What was going on? T stands for task. What was your role, or what was your goal, or similar things? What is it that you were assigned to? A stands for action. What steps did you take? What specific things did you do? R stands for result. What was the outcome or lesson? Now if you look closely, this STAR framework is also somewhere loosely related to the 5C framework we talk about, which is again context, conflict, cure, change, and carry out message. But this is, uh, the reason I am bringing over here is that a lot of time you will hear people saying use STAR framework, use STAR framework. You should know what it exactly talk about. So I'll give you example. Let's say I was put into a project where there was high stake and there was a lot of delays happening. My role was to make sure that the project gets delivered on time with no compromise on quality. So what I decided was I decided to get into action. I involved many teams across the different function. We made an action plan and I diligently followed up And the result was that the project was not only delivered on time, it was highly appreciated by management and customers, and it was a great success. So use the same framework, STAR framework, for that. So what we are going to do now is we are going to— I'm going to show 3 prompts on the screen, on the right side of the screen, and you can choose any of the 3 prompts, or you can come up with your own thing as well., and using these prompts, you're going to reflect and write down a story and then share the story afterwards. So 3 prompts are: tell me about a time when you solved a difficult problem, when you were facing a challenge, you solved a problem. Second is give an example of a time when you showed leadership. So that is the second prompt. And third one is Describe a situation where you work under pressure. Now you can choose any of these or combination of these, and we'll have about 2 minutes to jumble down the story. So let's get started. I'm gonna put the music on, start writing down the story. I'll keep the screen share on so that you can refer to the framework as well as to the prompts.

So this we are doing this exercise with the idea that I am being interviewed, right?

You are being interviewed. So yeah, you are the interviewee, not the interviewer. If you are interviewer, you'll ask these questions which are written as well. A few more seconds. All right, time is up. Stop sharing. And yes, you can go ahead and tell us which question you're going to answer and tell us the story.

So there was this patient who came to me yesterday after a long time of 8 months. He's a diabetic and he comes and tells me that, "Doctor, my sugars are going to be high. Can you check my sugar?" And when I did check the sugar, it was high. And then when I sat with him to listen to him, he said, "I cannot control my sugar. I cannot not eat, not have Coke every time I'm having my food. I was in China, Doctor, and there they don't serve water, they serve only Coke." And this is like I said, yeah, really, you have no Coke there, you have no water there? He said, no, doctor, really, I'm telling you, whatever food they give is so bad, and for that, making that food tasty, I'm having Coke along with that. And before he had gone away for 8-9 months to— for his business in China, already his kidneys were bad. So, and now I told him, you have to take care, you have to control yourself, there is no other way. Because if your kidneys— and today when we did his kidney function test, it has already deteriorated even further. I only gave him one solution: you go to another doctor, number one. Then he started saying, no, doctor, don't do like that, am I going to die? I said, yeah, you're going to die. Every time I should tell him no, but this time I told him yes, because if you get into that habit of drinking— so what I explained to him was that you cannot find solace and happiness in outside things. You have to go within yourself and understand and control your mind. You have to go inside of yourself and control your breath, concentrate on your breath, do some breathwork, do some inner work. Why are you doing what you're doing? And I made him understand this, and I told him, you have to do sadhana, you have to do abhyasa, you have to do practice. He says, what, meditation? I don't like meditation. I said, no, I'm not calling it meditation, I'm calling it reflection. Just sit in one place and go within and think of what you're doing. He comes— let us see when he comes back what he has done. But this is my solution that I gave him, to think from within himself.

Awesome. So yes, this is a story in progress, so we'd love to hear the part 2 of the story. But, uh, yeah, you gave context, you also talked about the challenges or task, and you also talked about the action. And yeah, results is to be confirmed. But yeah, great. So what is your reflection from this exercise? How did you find this exercise?

So the same thing, you know, Haritosh Srivastav, that I was mindful. The thing is, I'm telling to my patients to be mindful, but when I am telling the speech, even I have to be mindful. No, one minute, huh? All is coming. So when I am telling my patient that you have to be mindful of your eating, of your behavior, of everything, I am telling to myself, why am I not mindful when I'm telling a speech? So this is one— I'm getting this thing in the morning, that in the morning I'm very mindful when I'm sitting with you. Now I'm thinking like, whatever you do it, what's the context, what's the task, what's the result, what is this, all that. But when it, when it comes to during the day, anytime I'm telling a story, I forget all the points.

That's okay, that's okay. That's how it starts, right? You start taking some action every single day, so it starts to spill over in other parts of the day. It doesn't change overnight. So that's not what I promise, and that's not what happens also.

Correct.

Awesome. So let's get to the last part of the meeting, which is having 3 affirmations of the day. And I have the 3 relevant affirmations ready. So let's start with affirmation 1. My stories reflect my strengths and values. You can repeat.

My stories reflect my strength and value.

All right, let's go to the second one. I speak with clarity, purpose, and impact.

I speak with clarity, purpose, and impact. I speak with clarity, Purpose and impact. Yeah.

And last one: I turn experiences into powerful interview answers.

I'm having an interview tomorrow.

Awesome. So use this framework and use the storytelling power that you have developed over time. I turn experiences into powerful interview answers. Awesome. Story power to you. This was day 24 of Story Spark session. We'll probably be having 2 or 3 more sessions for rest of the month, and then we'll get into the new one. So have a great, fantastic day ahead, and we'll see tomorrow.