On this page you will find a number of exercises that we have devised to practice storytelling in a team / group. The title of the exercise tells about the ‘challenge’.
‘I CAN’T …’
A nice form for a retrospective with your team is this: cut equal strips of paper and give each team member one.
Everyone puts a sentence on paper for themselves that starts with ‘I can’t at all…’ or ‘I’m not at all…’ and then folds the papers closed
Then the plenary always opens 1 note and the group has to guess who wrote it. Of course it is mainly about the conversation that follows.
TALK WITH YOUR BODY
Storytelling is not only about words, but also about how you present it. About the non-verbal elements. This exercise helps with this.
Choose a nice rap beat (eg from freemusicarchive.org/genre/hip-hop_beats ) and individually create a rap in which you tell the team epic. A light-hearted song in which you celebrate the team’s struggle and glory.
Make it a competition: who has the best rap and moves to match? So don’t just use your voice, but also your hands and your hips.
CAPITALS
Concise, concise formulation is quite difficult. To practice this, there is chaptering. In short: there is always a pause that lasts as long as the speaking time before. If someone talks for 1 minute, we take a 1 minute break. And believe us, being quiet is quite difficult. The Kapittelmeester watches over time.
LETTER TO THE FUTURE
I got the inspiration for this exercise from a lesson by conductor Benjamin Zander. In short, it is about imagining why it will be successful at the start of a project. Language is of vital importance here.
Method
At the start of the workshop day, we will individually write a letter to the team, which will be opened on the day that the first sales milestone of the new product is reached. Select this milestone plenary (but not the date).
Get started individually. Write the letter, date it and complete the following sentence: “We achieved this success because… (and then follows the reason for the success). When everyone has written their letter, we seal the envelopes.
At the end of the session, everyone takes an envelope (not his own) and reads the letter to the whole group. A short conversation is allowed, but always end with teachings and actions that go with it.
P.S. I worked it out as we use it in the LSD workshop, but you can easily translate it into a team meeting or the like. A variant is writing the letter in pairs, because then you get a worthwhile conversation.
Do you know the storyteller, but do you also know the story listener? A story requires hearing. To listen carefully. That is quite difficult, but you can learn everything!