On this page you will find some simple working methods that we have devised for if you want to start with storytelling, whether or not in your team.
| And then… | A nice energizer as a brain-warmer in your storytelling workshop is the ‘And then…’ You start with a sentence about a random event and the person next to you continues the story with: ‘And then…’ and after that, the one next to him/her and so on . “We went to the beach…and then…there were big kites…and then…a kite fell into the sea…” This gives a nonsensical but also fairly straightforward story. It becomes more fascinating if you can always choose between the connecting word ‘but…’ and ‘…therefore’. ‘We went to the beach… but…. the sea was empty…therefore we got water from a petrol station…’* |
| Divide by three | Describe your message in a minimum of 21 and a maximum of 27 words. Then choose up to nine separate words that are the core of your story and write them down. Then discuss this in pairs and delete six words until you have three keywords left. You then use these three as the peg for your personal legend, team legend or organizational story (SCS **). |
| Alternative ending | Think of an alternative ending for your favorite Netflix series individually and present it live. Or better: act it! Also fun with (your) children. |
| We would… | You do this exercise with several people. The goal is to discover the similarities and differences in your (team) dream. You invent a special event and start fantasizing in the ‘then we would’ form. For example, “If we won the lottery, we would buy a yacht.” The second person continues this with ‘Then we would cross the ocean’, the next with ‘Then we would go fishing for whales and again the next’ Then we would meet Moby Dick ‘and so on. |
| ‘Hints’ without hands | A nice warm-up for a storytelling session is a kind of hints but without the non-verbal communication. You have to describe a word in words without mentioning the word. And that within 30 seconds. Download the free Word Game app from Gelimbo. |
| Wordplay | Another warm-up: let an online word generator ‘come up with X random words and make a story out of it. An alternative is to generate 1 random word and have your team combine it with their favorite pop song, celebrity or animal. |
* This is an insight from the makers of Southpark
** The Sustainable Corporate Story (Van Riel cs)