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Exercises/Relationship Mapping/Your Personal Narrative
Prompted Conversation ยท Relationship Mapping

Your Personal Narrative

Empower each participant with targeted questions and groups of specific people to help establish their personal narrative

5 to 15 minutesTIME
Pairs, Small group (4-8)GROUP SIZE
QuietENERGY
In personSETTING
Medium cognitive loadCOGNITIVE LOAD
Strengthens Network Design This relationship mapping exercise strengthens Network Design, one of the eight Gathering Effectiveness pillars.

How to run it

  1. Few of us have taken the trouble to articulate our personal narrative, even though we all have one
  2. It's usually an implicit narrative that can be made explicit by reflecting on the choices we have made and the actions we have taken throughout our lives
  3. Making our narrative explicit can yield a lot of insight about who we have been and gives us a chance to reflect on whether it is who we really want to be
  4. Ask the participants to take 5 minutes to think of/jot down their answer to the following questions
  5. Then split into People Science groups of 3-4 and share the responses to the questions
Live facilitator

Run this exercise live

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Prompts to use +

Few of us have taken the trouble to articulate our personal narrative, even though we all have one

It's usually an implicit narrative that can be made explicit by reflecting on the choices we have made and the actions we have taken throughout our lives

Making our narrative explicit can yield a lot of insight about who we have been and gives us a chance to reflect on whether it is who we really want to be

Ask the participants to take 5 minutes to think of/jot down their answer to the following questions

Then split into People Science groups of 3-4 and share the responses to the questions

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: Your Personal Narrative. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Few of us have taken the trouble to articulate our personal narrative, even though we all have one; It's usually an implicit narrative that can be made explicit by reflecting on the choices we have made and the actions we have taken throughout our lives; Making our narrative explicit can yield a lot of insight about who we have been and gives us a chance to reflect on whether it is who we really want to be; Ask the participants to take 5 minutes to think of/jot down their answer to the following questions. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.

Origin unverified

  • Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Relationship Makers Handbook; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including Relationship Makers Handbook.)
  • 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.

Pairs well with