The Story of a Story
The Story of a Story is a collaborative story building exercise for reflection and learning: it helps participants reflect on experience and turn observations into learning.
How to run it
- Select a sample item, describe it, and write it down on the top left corner of the canvas.
- Write down the major events on its execution path (e.g. from inception to completion).
- Write down the good things to repeat.
- Write down the things to avoid, to be cautious about or consider changing.
- Discuss with the group and write down action items.
- This activity has a different structure from others. It focuses on one item and everything that happened to it. It pushes the team to reflect about concrete facts that happened and how they affected the outcome of a specific item.
- Remote-team advice : This activity works well for remote teams. Use a remote board of your choice.
Run this exercise live
The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.
What participants need now
Materials:
This is a participant-safe snapshot, not a response form. It sends nothing back to the facilitator.
Prompts to use +
Select a sample item, describe it, and write it down on the top left corner of the canvas.
Write down the major events on its execution path (e.g. from inception to completion).
Write down the good things to repeat.
Write down the things to avoid, to be cautious about or consider changing.
Discuss with the group and write down action items.
This activity has a different structure from others. It focuses on one item and everything that happened to it. It pushes the team to reflect about concrete facts that happened and how they affected the outcome of a specific item.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: The Story of a Story. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Select a sample item, describe it, and write it down on the top left corner of the canvas.; Write down the major events on its execution path (e.g. from inception to completion).; Write down the good things to repeat.; Write down the things to avoid, to be cautious about or consider changing.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The current corpus has one observed source organization: FunRetrospectives. (1 source observed, including FunRetrospectives.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.