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Visual Origin Story: Adventures in collaborative storytelling

Joining a team means learning about new people. Taking the time to weave

together imagery can make a team feel more cohesive and complete, even when

they’re located on opposite sides of the earth and have never met in person. The

Visual Origin Story activity evolved from one of our first forays into using visual

narratives for the purpose of team-building prior to starting work on the actual

project.

This activity strikes a balance between author-driven contributions and

reader-driven co-creations, with the aim of merging visuals to create one repre-

sentative team image, or avatar, and constructing a narrative about it. Teammates

create their own individual avatars first, then work together on the team avatar

and story. As with structured dialogue, we found that these teams benefitted

from a structured opportunity for positive and upbeat personal interactions be-

fore rolling up their sleeves to dig into a challenging topic together.

Collaborative storytelling

The process of telling and crafting stories through the creation of characters, set-

tings, and situations as part of a storyline can take many forms and utilize many

kinds of creative mechanics. Collaborative storytelling is determined by the shared

contributions of a team and can be co-created in a variety of ways. Narrators

might build on each other’s contributions by adding new elements to the end of

 

 

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a sequence without altering the previous contributions. Another approach might

be to craft a story together through parallel contributions, which enables editing

of prior contributions, and can be done synchronously or asynchronously. Multi-

ple stories can also be shared simultaneously within collaborative spaces, such as

the Fourth Space, virtual worlds, or games.

You have likely participated in some form of collaborative and/or interactive

storytelling at one point in your life. New digital tools have increased collabo-

rative and interactive storytelling formats from online spaces to video gaming

worlds. These evolving formats continue to blur the lines between author-driven

and reader-drives approaches in terms of who plays the role of narrator or listener.

In context: Visual narratives and teambuilding

“What do a robot, a horse, an insect, and an outgoing personality possibly have in common?” One of our teammates wondered this aloud as she browsed through the array of images she had received from her teammates.

As she read their explanations, though, she started to imagine how the positive characteristics of the individuals represented in the images could come together into a single entity that could illustrate the team. She printed out the images, cut them out of paper, and began assembling them into dif- ferent configurations. A smile crept across her face as she said, “I can’t wait to see what they are creating with all of these different parts!”

As she documented and shared her creation with the team, along with a short story about this fantastical beast, she asked her teammates to chime in with suggestions, additions, and changes.

“I was feeling hesitant about this project because the topic seems so tough,” she explained to them in writing as she posted her image in the shared online com- munity, “but now I feel really motivated to get started and to work with you all.”

Cultural roles in storytelling

We have found that remote teams who engage with collaborative storytelling

build feelings of unanimity, mutual understanding, trust, and a sense of commu-

nity. Professor of Sociology Donna Eder (1988) points out the social constructs

of “narrator” and “listener” are variable across cultures. Some cultures embrace

the idea of a single storyteller and attentive listeners, while others challenge this

notion. In Mayan culture, for example, there was a clearly defined “responder”

among the listeners whose role included asking important questions, making

comments, and sometimes completing sentences. This type of engagement trans-

forms storytelling into a more collaborative activity and reinforces friendship and

solidarity. Showing agreement, providing additional information, and offering

opinions inherent in these practices can also help guide conflict resolution.

 

 

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Benefits & outcomes

• Create a team name, avatar, and origin story • Participate in playful lateral thinking as a team • Remember characteristics of your team by manipulating visual informa-

tion together • Imagine and co-create a shared world for your work together

Activity

Visual Origin Story

Origin stories exist in every human culture and are used to offer explanations about

how something came into existence. Creating a Visual Origin Story combines

lateral and visual thinking to as your team envisions its collective capabilities

and imagines a positive trajectory together. For example, the team’s co-authored

origin story might describe teammates’ superpowers and how they work to-

gether to “fight the evils of the world.” The activity involves both asynchronous

components with low social presence (your independent work) and synchronous

moments with high social presence (coming together with your team to discuss

and create). Working together synchronously at the end stage of this activity is

recommended, if possible.

People: Individual/local colleagues/remote teammates

Duration: 1 hour (plus 1–2 days to combine avatars)

Technology: Internet access & web browser

Other resources: Pen, paper, or word processing software

Low-bandwidth version: Printer, photocopier, scissors, tape, pen, paper

Tips

• Individual avatar: Have fun creating your own individual avatars first, then share them with your team to describe your personality or things you love. The avatar can be as quirky and strange as you want it to be, as long as you can speak about how it connects to your personality. Robots, horses, insects, objects, humans, and more are all welcome to the party!

• Combining avatars: Think of interesting ways to combine the avatars together. Don’t just make a matrix of fragmented parts and call things done. Instead, think about how the parts fit together in interesting new ways. What new creatures could you create? What hybrid object might be constructed to represent the team?

 

 

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• Brainstorming: Throughout the process of working together, think about the different collaborative storytelling techniques that might help your team brainstorm together. Perhaps one person adds an element to another person’s contribution or you might have an open back-and- forth discussion where multiple stories take place in a shared world. Have fun and share ideas!

• Stay playful: This does not need to be a serious activity and, in fact, keeping the mood light will build positive feelings among your team. If you will be working on a serious topic later in the process, activities such as this one provide a useful emotional counterpoint to relieve some of the stress and tension that can result from working with challenging topics.

Personal avatar

Phase 1: Working individually

1. Brainstorm: Create an avatar—an image that will represent your

personality—to share your new teammates. Feeling stuck? This exercise in

lateral thinking will help you come up with some imaginative ways to rep-

resent yourself. First, grab a pen and paper to write down your responses to

the following:

• A verb for an activity that you like to do, ending in -ING (“flying,”

“jumping,” etc.)

• Favorite color(s)

• Your favorite snack food

• An adjective that best describes you

• Your favorite creature, real or imagined

• Favorite musical artist

• Favorite board or video game

• A particular hidden talent of yours

• Name of the street or town where you grew up

• Name(s) of your pet(s) (if applicable)

2. Imagine: Next, combine any number of selections from the previous list to de-

velop a fun description of yourself. Perhaps you are a superhero who can make

tacos appear with the snap of your fingers? Or do you feel you embody a hybrid

of your two favorite animals? Come up with two to four options for yourself by

combining answers, adding descriptive features, or editing as needed.

Examples of how you might describe your new superhero self:

“I’m a…”

• Flying Kimchi Horse

• Laughing Aqua Robot

• Yodeling League of Insects

• Bouncing Extroverted Cheeto

 

 

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3. Visualize: Continue to working individually to create a visual representa-

tion of yourself based on what you have imagined, making sure to connect

to any personality or skills you might bring to the team. Some ideas to get

you started include:

• Draw on top of a photograph

• Create an illustration or caricature (a bowl of kimchi wearing sun-

glasses, a Cheeto with a face, etc.)

• Collage together items from magazines or newspapers

• Develop other creative representations, such as a hand puppet con-

structed from fabric or other materials

Unified team visual

Phase 2: With remote teammates

4. Discuss: Meet via video or messaging to share all of your fun individual

avatars in a shared document. Make sure to explain all the qualities and ele-

ments you have embedded in your creation. Ultimately, your goal will be to

combine these images into one team avatar.

Brainstorm different ways you might combine your individual images into a

single team avatar.

Examples of how to discuss combining avatars into a single team image:

“What do a robot, a horse, an insect, and an outgoing personality possibly have

in common? What about a mythical robot-insect-horse, driven by a miniature

lady?”

“Yes, let’s draw it!”

“Here’s what I think the body could look like…”

5. Combine & Document: Working together, combine the individual av-

atars together to create one unified team visual. Depending on the chosen

materials, you may need to photograph, photocopy, or scan the results in

order to share them with your teammates.

Some options to combine your images include:

• Analog collage: Print several copies of the individual images. Cut

them out and then tape the images together to make a new composite

image; consider bringing other physical materials (fabric, paints, etc.)

into the process to make the experience more lively, multisensory, and

exciting.

• Analog drawing: Studying each person’s individual contribution,

consider how could you bring elements from each individual avatar

into a single image? Sketch some ideas on paper to document and

share.

 

 

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• Digital table: Insert a table into your shared document (the num-

ber of rows should correspond to the number of teammates. Place se-

lected images side-by-side. Experiment with different placements and

orientations.

• Digital composition: Use free or paid image-editing software to

combine images digitally into a single composition.

6. Merge together: Work in rounds to discuss each person’s visuals. This

process may require multiple rounds of discussion, selection, and revision.

• For larger teams, you might vote to select one person’s creation to vis-

ually represent your team.

• Smaller teams might experiment by combining elements from all team-

mates. Discuss preferred approaches with your teammates.

7. Name your team: Give your unified team visual a name. This name should

capture the spirit of the team as reflected in the visual itself.

Team origin story

Phase 3: With remote teammates

8. Write: Based on the narrative elements of your new unified team visual, use

a similar approach to co-author a brief fictional origin story about the team,

including key strengths and possible adventures.

9. Finalize: For the duration of your time working together, the final team

name, avatar, and origin story will represent your team in group critiques

and other forums.

10. Discuss: Take some time to discuss what you have learned about through

this collaborative storyboarding experience. Use the following guide for

discussion.

DISCUSSION GUIDE

• What did this activity teach you about collaborative storytelling?

• What kind of cultural content or meaning is embedded in your team name

and combined image? Ask teammates to clarify or explain elements of their

images.

• Did learning about your teammates during this process make you feel closer

to them?

• How did this process help your team establish trust and build a relationship?