Stories Trainers

Tell

Once upon a

time…

10 Powerful Stories for Trainers

By

ASHUTOSH SHARMA

i

10 Powerful Stories

fOR

Trainers

By

Ashutosh Sharma

ii

10 Powerful Stories for Trainers

First Edition: 2015

Copyright © Ashutosh Sharma

All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,

without prior permission of the author.

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Stories - As They Unfold

1. The Power of Story Telling……………………………………………………………………………………………………………1

2. The Benefactor……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..3

3. Poor Judges of Talent………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9

4. Where is my Money?................................................................................................................ .....................12

5. Trust is a Tricky Business…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..16

6. The Sage and The Proud King………………………………………………………………………………………………….….18

7. Standing in his Shoes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…22

8. Victims at both Ends of the Gun………………………………………………………………………………………………...27

9. The Homework……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………30

10. Letting Go!.................................................................................................................. ...................................33

11. Too Busy to Listen……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...37

1

The Power of Story Telling

As a child, I grew up hearing a story that was my father’s favorite. Whenever he found

me waking up late in the morning, he’d tell it to me. Repetition did not matter. The story

was about an extraordinarily strong wild boar who once challenged a tiger to a duel.

Both of them fought each other overnight. All the while it looked like the wild boar was

too good for the tiger. However, just before the sunrise, wild boar fell asleep. Though

strong physically, he lacked strong will power. The tiger took the opportunity and killed

the boar. Several years have passed since I graduated from the college, but still,

whenever I oversleep in the morning, I get up with a gnawing feeling of guilt. I equate

lack of control over sleep as lack of will power. The story has become an integral part of

my belief system, and my life.

Stories are powerful. Not only do they change individuals, they play an important role in

the development of cultures and civilizations too. The impact of stories on the psyche

and identity of people is very potent. The enmities between countries, religions, or

regions, often perpetuate on a staple diet of stories that border with the realm of fiction.

Stories arouse interest and emotions, motivate for action and change, and provide a

conduit for transfer of tacit knowledge and beliefs from generations to generations.

Aesop Fables, Tales of Panchtantra, Zen Stories, and Mythologies are all examples of

how stories have been historically used as an instrument for imparting learning and

moral values to the masses.

Stories help in change and learning because:

1. Stories are coherent, structured, and easy to relate with

2. They weave a rich imagery that affects the human brain at a deeper level

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3. The panoply of emotions that they bring ensures that the learning is firmly

anchored in the brain

4. Stories are simple to understand and easy to recall

Trainers often use stories in their training programs. And for good reason: no amount of

lecturing, power-point presentations, or exercises find as much receptivity from the

learners as simple inspirational stories.

In this book, I have penned down 10 stories that you, as a trainer, can readily use in

your training programs. Each story can be used for sensitizing learners to many

different but related topics like empathy, listening, humility, trust etc.

It is important that stories are processed appropriately by the learners in order to drive

home learning. At the end of each story, I have provided some facilitative questions that

you might ask the learners to ensure proper processing, understanding and articulation

of the key messages in the story.

For each story, I’ve also provided debrief questions that you could use to sum up the

discussion. Though the questions and the debrief could be used as provided, the format

of the discussion could be of your choice – small group discussion followed by

presentation to the plenary, large group discussion, individual work, pre work etc.

I’ve retold these ten stories. Which means, though the words, phrases, expressions,

and perspectives are mine, the stories themselves are based either on real life events

or urban legends and myths. I am not telling these stories for the first time, I’m retelling

them with a fresh perspective. Used at the right place and in the right way, these stories

could be very powerful, inspirational, and thought provoking.

3

1

The Benefactor

“Cheer up, Man!” The fellow hollered quite near my ear. But I was so engrossed in

myself that I wasn’t startled.

As I raised my head, I saw a usual old man with an unusually happy smile on his face.

He must have come for a morning walk as most retired people do. He offered an

unsolicited advice and I wondered if he could really empathize with my situation from his

retired life perspective.

“Yes, thank you!” I responded with a thumbs-up and a half hearted attempt at smiling.

I had been going to that park every morning since the previous month. My

psychotherapist had advised that it would help me overcome depression that had

haunted me since I had started facing trouble running my company because of poor

returns and mounting debt. But, it did not seem to be helping!

“Something serious is bothering you. Isn’t it?” I felt a friendly tap on my shoulder from

behind. The old man had completed one round of the park and was concerned that I

had not taken his advice seriously.

“Yes, thank you, I will find a way to manage it!” It is irksome – the way old people

sometime behave.

“I’m not too convinced you believe so. I can help, if you allow.”

“I’d ask for help, if I really need it. Thank you for your concern.” I did not want to be rude

to the poor soul. “

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Next morning, as I entered the park, the old man smiled from across the jogging track. I

smiled back and sat down on the bench.

“Come along, young fella! We should walk.”

I don’t know what was so compelling in his voice. I got up and started walking behind

him. He slowed down and allowed me to catch up with him. He looked over his glasses

at me.

“You can share what’s bothering you so much”

“Failed at business!” I summarized as succinctly as I could.

We spoke for half an hour. I explained about how I lost at business and the financial

crisis it brought me.

“I know it could be embarrassing, but I would like to ask you anyway. Do you need

money? I can invest in your business – loss will be mine and we share the profit.

“Are you joking?”

“No…Really!”

“How much?”

“Would 500,000 Dollars help?”

I was dumbfounded.

“Ok, then, here we go!” He pulled out a checkbook from his pocket and started writing

on a leaf.

Here it was, a check signed by John McCain – the old man.

5

“How did you manage to get so much money?” I quizzed with a raised eyebrow. Not

quite believing the turn of the events.

“I earned it. And, don’t worry, I have more than enough left to take care of my life. You

go on and we’ll keep meeting”.

With a check, loaded with enough money to solve my problems, in my hand, I saw John

leave the park. He waived at me while exiting through the park’s gate. I waived back –

still unable to digest my good fortune.

I came back and kept the check in table’s drawer. The entire day, I thought about it. I

had a check that could solve all my problems. I had nothing to lose. I decided to invest

whatever little money I was left with in my account in turning around my business.

Next six months, I worked like a man on a mission, in order to revive my business. My

smile returned back and so did the customers. My employees were motivated and

positive. Orders were flowing in and customers were happy with the service we

provided them. It was like a new lease of life for me. In all this busyness, I never

realized that I stopped going to the park. I was worried what John would be thinking all

this while about me. He would have come to know that I never encashed the check he

gave me. Would he be upset with me?

It was 1st October, full six months since John handed me over the check. I wanted to

tell him today, about my success, my hard work, my growing business. He might even

be happy that I did not spend his money. But, I decided that I would give him a good

interest on the money that he never loaned me.

I had woken up early that day; my steps had an extra spring, curiosity and eagerness of

a child. I saw John in the park, he was walking as usual. I hollered at him from a

distance. He turned and smiled mischievously.

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“I was waiting for you to encash the check” He said with an all knowing smile.

“I can’t thank you enough, John! I went back with your check and kept it in my drawer. I

never deposited it in my account.” I reached for my pocket and took it out “Here…here it

is! You can take it back. My business rebounded. I don’t need it anymore. It provided

me the security I needed.”

I took a pause, looked into his eyes and with some hesitation said, “I would like to pay

you some interest on this amount. Please accept it.”

John laughed. He laughed and laughed. And when he could finally catch his breath, he

kept his hand at my shoulder again and said, “You really think I gave you 500,000

dollars? I thought you would realize that it was 1st April that day.”

I stood there stunned. John’s innocuous prank had changed my life.

7

Where to use?

This story can be best used in:

a) Training programs on the topics of Entrepreneurship, Self-Belief, Confidence,

Self-Reliance, and Risk Taking

b) Coaching or counselling managers/executives who are holding themselves back

because of career limiting beliefs

c) Group discussions where the team is falling short of required confidence levels

and is marred by self-doubt and self-criticism

What are some of the questions that could be asked after the story?

1. Has there been an event in your life when you failed because of your inability to take

a risk? What could have changed the situation?

2. List down fears that are holding you back from taking a leap in your career? Which of

them are real and which are just phantom?

3. How is one’s ability to take risk affected by one’s circumstances?

4. Do you know people who took calculated risk despite their circumstances and were

successful?

5. How would you view risks differently now?

How to sum up the learning from the story?

1. Success is as much about potential to do as it is about having the courage and

chutzpah to do it. Nothing great has been ever achieved from the comforts of the

known. One has to break the shackles and unfetter oneself to go beyond the

ordinary life.

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2. Fears that bind us are often phantom and exaggerated versions of our self-

limiting beliefs. We need to question those beliefs to see if they are right and

worth believing.

3. Fears and risks could be real sometimes. That is why, the best option is to take

calculated risks – where you weigh the probability and extent of damage or loss

against the probability and quantum of benefit that you might get if you’re

successful.

4. Taking calculated risks also requires you to have a high level of self-awareness

and humility to understand and acknowledge your weaknesses vis-à-vis your

strengths. Taking unnecessary and obvious risks beyond your current potential

might be foolish. Having said that, proper preparation and practice might enable

you to improve your capabilities and potential.

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