20 wan Posted in log, Crate, Desion Thinking, Lead Your Team by Jo North In this art, I share why stories are so important, show you how you can usea story technique to plan your agenda, and then outline tn different story based faciltation activities that you can do, Before we star, download my fre toolkit from the Faclitation Toolkits section of my ‘Content Studio here Story Techniques for Facilitators Story video re you sting comfortably? Then tl begin! Stories are important to humans ‘Stores are important to humans. Throughout time we have always shared stories. Stores have been important for community for learning, for passing on knowledge through ‘generations, for bringing us together. ‘Stores also help us expand our creativity use our imagination and play wth possblties. ‘And through story we can put ourselves inthe shoes of someone else a customer, colleague stakeholder —to help us see diferent perspectives when we are innovating, or working on a diferent strategy forthe business. “This website uses cocks to imorove your excerance, Well assume youte ok wth ths, butyoucanopout#youwish. Caskinseings Accui ee IDEA TIME ACADEMY Cave paintings ~ ancient stryteting A story includes words AND pictures By story |don'tjust mean words. | also mean pictures. I's estimated that we process images {60,000 times faster than we do text, 90% of the information we take nis visual so pitures ‘are important. When you'e thinking about using story techniques thine words and pictures together to create that story The hero’s journey (Joseph Campbell) Have you heard of the haz'sjoumey concept by Jaseah Camabell A formula underpins all ‘great story teling that we can trace back tothe presiterary age. The formula present in religious iterature, ancient mythology, great medieval aal narratives, Hellywood blockbusters, realty tv, gripping thriller novels and more. ‘The hero's journey begins witha call to adventure, ane there's usually an external influence = even some sor of supernatural aid, something inthe universe helping. ‘Thehero has to go over a threshold to start their transformation. They go out oftheir comfort zone and into a word or situation that they arent familar with. That word is full of challenges, itis full of temptations, and efficully. Theres usually something really significant thatthe hero has to overcome. They overcome that.go through 3 transformation, and then go back into the world they were in before, Having had the gift of this wansformation they use this progresion to move forward, “This website uses cocks to morove your excerance, Wel assume youte ck wth ths, but youcan opbout#you wish. Cask soins8) The Hero’s Journey (loseph campbell lustration ofthe Heros Journey The hero's journey - an outline agenda for your workshop You can actually use the hero's journey when you are planning your workshop agenda ‘When people come into the room or join your session remotely often their heads are in their usual day job. You agree the objectives forthe day, and set in train a call to action. ‘Your activities encourage ideas and collaboration. People get some creative sparks fying — and usually there's also some tough stuff that they eally have to think about and grapple ith. But they break through, they get some great solutions and take those ideas back into the day ja. IDEA TIME. Rent) Hopefully you can see how you could use the hero's journey concept to plan your agenda, {As well as getting your target outcomes and achieving some breaktivough thinking, our delegates will have a rally good day because they will experience the positive arvicipation af the day, followed by the challenge and the reward of geting through to the other side ‘and coming up with some great solutions Essentially itis tha cal to action, rallying round a cause that sat the heat of your delegates journey. You all work on it together~ asthe failtator with a toolkit of activities, insight and resources, you're the external iluence that guides and supports the innovation journey, the assimilation of leaming, the change or transformation ‘Ths website uses coo 2 Well asume yout ck wth this putyoucan opt-out fyou wisn Cacia‘When you use story as your foundation, you don't have to use story activities all day —in {act for most situations, please dant Too much ofthe same isn't a great storyline! Select some techniques that you can use at diferent points in your workshop, and mix them in with other types of techniques. Use your judgement, put these activities together in diferent ways. Be creative and you wll get a realy great resuk. {All the activites that Lam going to share with you here are tied and tested multiple times with many different delegates in a wide varity of scenarios, and they wor really wel ‘Dx Jo Noxth setting the scene forthe day at Innovation Livel atthe 2050 Janovation Hub at Portof une 10 Story techniques for facilitators Story technique 1: Storyboarding ‘Ase delegates to create a stryooard for their selected challenge a follows: 1. Oraw the current postion in the first box 2. Draw the ideal target position inthe last box. 2. Naw fillin the boxes in between with drawings of how you will get the idea. 4. Capture key steps in words under each drawing ‘This ie can be a useful vial technique that helps to crete a clear image ofthe goal and achievable stepe towards it, overcoming obstacles onthe way. Make sure that delegates have fun drawing as a team it doesn't have tobe a great piece of at that’s part of she enjoyment you want to look at some fantastic examples of storyboard, havea look at Pxar and see some great examples of how they actually use storyboarding for their animations. “This website uses cocks to morove your excerance, Wel assume youte ck wth ths, but youcan opbout#you wish. Cask soinsey Storytelling Gen Fine Creativity Technique #1 acaonsy Storyboarding + Ask delegates to create a story board for thelr selecied challenge as folons: 1. Draw the current position inthe first box. 2. Draw the ideal target position inthe last box. 3, Now fllin the boxes in between with drawings of how you wil get from the current ta the iceal 44, Capture key stops in words under each drawing conta car mae oto goal an achevate ‘chars owen obsaces one way ~ Haven een a team dest Neve abe (gostpoce of an fas pao re elope Oe Story boarding Story technique 2: Story cubes Stony cubes are small ce, and they have got pictures on each side. You can get dferent Sets, and they are around §5 or $5, Ask delegates to roll her story cubes and create stores based on the pictures that they ral Ihave gota numberof varstions on how you can use these Ihave no association wth Rony and his stony cubes, but they are fabulous. They‘e really reat for getting people talking and thinking diferenty. People alzo like raling the dice and being interactive Here are just afew ideas of things that you can do with them. + Warm up Each person throws three cubes, and they make up litle stories up from ‘those cubes, The strias are to bein cannaction with the workshop that you are running + leabreaker Each person rolls just one cube, and winen they introduce themselves to ‘the group, have to link the picture they have relled to something personal bout themselves + Solution stories Delegates work in small teams and rll al sic or nine of the dice ‘They construct story based om all the pictures they have rolled a ideas forthe theme of your workshop. For example, ealier this manth | used this activity ina customer experience workshop. Delegates used the story cubes to customer experiance stories. Some of them were rally funny, but some of them were very insightful as well esto marove your exserence, Well assume youte ok with hi, uk you can aptoutfyou win, Cooke etioos(ey Storytelling IDEA TIME Creativity Technique #2 DeMY Story Cubes 1+ Warm up- each person thems 3 cubes and makes true ory with the images onthe aes 1+ tee reakar— each person trows on cube ad shares ile knowe fot shou theese inspired the tube + Collaboration each pesenthows one ce and States prt of story sped bythatcube Tree faleagus nthe group keep the tory gong throwing the ibe and doing the se nt, 50 that each person bls on what he parson Bere Mas Unblocking—use the cubes fr people to unblock thelr taughtsasand when neecea touprout he fessor, with deans choosing wen thy want © + User eperence stories —use the cubes in smal teams to create ie" expetence store focused on eer Using story cubes Story technique 3: The parable of the talents — reimagined ‘The til technique is what call the ‘parable othe talents re-magined”. Ask delegates to take tenfiteen minutes to draw the story headlines of thee life so far, and theirhopes for te years ahead, on a fp chart paper, working on ther own, That sounds lke a big question for ten min loes work. Delegates can start ther story at whatever point they like a5 far back oa recently as they want. Ofcourse they can share whatever ‘they want, and don't have to share things they don't want to doesn'it! Sut Incviduals then use their flip chat aga visual aid to tale through their stor fr other delegates, highlighting things that have been significant, pivotal moments, things they are really proud of hile each individual is sharing their story, a really lovely thing to dois for everyoody listening to write tree strengths or three talents that they can hear, ose in tei fellow delegates story, on individual sticky notes, Make sure they add the name of their colleague conta the sticky note esto marove your exserence, Well assume youte ok with hi, uk you can aptoutfyou win, Cooke etioostrix populated with everyoody's ‘When everyone has shared their storia, create a tale strengths and talents s8cky notes. I you'd ike a specie step-by-step guide to this activity, and all the other activites inthis 1d my free toolkit from the Facilitation Toolkits section of my | have iten the detail fal ofthese facilitation activities out for you so all you have to do is click on that, downoad i, and have a look att and please do let me know how you get on withit! Story technique 4: Experts’ or users’ stories, Inthe Experts’ oF Uses Story technique, alegates inthe audience ak between ‘ and 3 subject matter expert (2) spontaneous questions relating to ther experiences ~told as stories ~within the domain of experts! focus areas ‘The technique is an efecive alternative listening to an expert give a standard presentation How to use i “This website uses cooks te imsrave your exoerance, Well sume yoste ok wh thi out you can optout # you wisn.2 Give a brief explanation of how the session will be run and ask the delegates to write 1e end of down any insights they gain ont sticky notes for collection ané display the session. Encourage delegates to ask about relevant issues, challenges and Introduce each ofthe experts / users Invite each of the experts / users to share thelr ‘experiences of the matter in hand, talking delegates through the true story of what happened, 4 Invite delegates who have questions with questions to take a seat on ane ofthe two ‘ematy chairs available. Ask them to keep their questions concise. ‘Once their question has been asked and answered, they should vacate the seat so that someone elze with a question can sit down and ask. Upto two delegates can sit t ‘the front one wil be asking a question or listening toa reply, and the ther is nextin tur. Ask other delegates with questions to wait nearby so they can jumpin quickly. Story technique 5: A day in the life ‘This activity i especially suitable for events involving paticinants rom diferent pats ofthe same project. ‘The creation of “day inthe Ife" stories each showing what delegates need to da thelr jobs ~ helps people to communicate visually and builds mutual understanding How to use i 1. Ast delegates to create a visual storyboard that represents a typical day for them at ‘work o relating to your specifi collaboration projec. 2. Emphasise that drawing ability doesn't mater stick figures ae fine, 3. Ask each delegate to talk through their storyboard te other delegates, taking ‘questions and observations 28 they go. 4. Ask delegates to create a joint summary of any insights they have obtained from the activity asa whole This activity is also fantastic if you are deing business improvement workshops ané want peopl to understand each others role inthe proces. “This website uses cocks to morove your excerance, Wel assume youte ck wth ths, but youcan opbout#you wish. Cask soinsStory technique 6: Story of transformation Use this technique towards the end of the workshop, when delegates have generated ideas, and selected and developed the most promising ones {Ask delegates to tell the story of how the the customer ar user experience willbe transformed from what its now tothe new, improved version once the new ideas ae in place. The customer or user should be the hero ofthe story, Delegates should have time to prepare their story and create posters to show the transformation, cutting and sticking from ‘ld magatines and newspapers; drawing: witing in key words Story technique 7: Create a tweetable Story technique no. 7 it simply crete a weelable. They don’ have to send it—just se the concept creative challenge. Again th is one you do atthe endothe dy Delegates have done al her work they have got thee solution, and the challenge for them is to turn that solution into a story, which they can tweet in 260 characters o less. This realy focuses the mind, and gets delegates to dtl theirdeas and thoughts downto the most important things so that they an communicate taut smo “This website uses cocks to morove your excerance, Wel assume youte ck wth ths, but youcan opbout#you wish. Cask soinsIedoes take 2 bit of thinking to get it all drilled down into 280 characters, but can be good fun a wel, nave a global lent, and they tweet all heir new innovation ideas to several hundred customers around the world, Customers vote on whether or not tsa good idea, simply {rom that tweet. Enstein said you need to make things as spe as possiole and no simple, and thnk a tweetable is 2 realy nice way of thinking about how to express ideas. Story technique 8: Three minute story Use this technique towards the end of the workshop, when delegates hove generated ideas, and selected and developed the most promising ones ‘Ask delegates to prepare to tell a stry showing how their ideas willbe use in practice that takes fils at least 2 minutes and is no longer than 3 minutes ‘This activity relly focuses delegates onthe core, most important element of their ideas, It was inspired by the Tives Minute These (MD) competition which challenges PhD students to educate and engage the audience with their research in just three minutes. The students are competing to communicate the impact oftheir research to an audience and judging panel. Story technique 9: The end. [Atte end ofthe dy, atk delegates to workin smal groups to vsuale everything they have leamed, everything tat has stood cut fr them, al he memorable moments and put that into a memorable story ofthe day tat they present ther other colleagues nthe “This website uses cocks to morove your excerance, Well assume youte ck wth ths, but youcan opout#you wish. Cask soinsStory technique 10: Limericks Technique no, 101s to use imericks to create and share tories A limerick funny poem of five lines. Here's an example Tere was a young lady of station ove man’ was her sole exclamation aut when men cree: You Mater Sie replieg, Oh! no matter Jsle of Man ithe true explanation Lewis Carat You can use limerieks in lifferent ways in your workshops: + Asa worm up~split people into smull teams and ask them to write and shate 8 limerick that represents the team + Asa fun energiser afer lanch or mid aft + Asa way to get delegates thinking creatively about thee challenge + Asa means of expressing different ideas For a happily ever after. IHyou haven't done so yet, download my free toolkit from the Fall > of my Content Studio here, 1d realy love to hear what you think and how you get an with tying out same ofthese techniques It you'd ice any help, please contact me diract using the contact frm below and wil respond personally. you've enjoyed this and would tke scores mare of great facilitation activities ice these, and would love to expand your creativity, confidence and impact 352 faitator,chedk out the Idea Time Academy here, ‘Thank you so much for joining me, ll see you next time. esto marove your exserence, Well assume youte ok with hi uk you can aptoutfyou win, Cooke etions4 7 IDEA TIME Ora, Dr Jo North ‘Online Busines Growth =Lessans Learned Haw to redefine your business goals in uncertain times > Leave a Reply Yeur email address will not be published. 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