Is Your Organization Taking a Dip? 🏊🏻🌊
Summer’s here, the weather is hot, and your pool-party lovin’ neighbour isn’t the only one taking a dip this summer. 💦🩳😆
Many organizations also experience a dip — of sorts. Maybe attendance is low as your team members head out on their summer vacations. Sales might be down as spending relaxes in the summer months. This can also lead to decreased productivity and motivation, as colleagues dream about hitting the beach and getting outside.
Luckily, there is a powerful tool that you can use to keep your team connected and inspired during this season: storytelling.
And even better – storytelling can be a lot of fun, too. It can also be used to enhance communication, creativity, and collaboration within your team.
Here’s how!
The Power of PechaKucha
PechaKucha is a dynamic presentation format that originated in Japan. It allows presenters to share their ideas using 20 slides, each displayed for 20 seconds. This concise and visually compelling storytelling format encourages presenters to whittle their message down to its essence — and deliver it with impact.
PechaKucha presentations incorporate storytelling elements, and they can be so much fun, and often hilarious. A key rule? The presentations CANNOT be about work. Maybe the theme for your next PechaKucha meeting is “Summer Holidays” and see what awesome things your team got up to off the clock.
Want to learn more? Check out our blog post that’s all about the power of PechaKucha.
Love PechaKucha? Try These:
Okay, so you’ve tried PechaKucha and it was ✨ awesome ✨. Why not make a habit of fun, engaging team building exercises that you can do throughout the summer (or the year!).
Here are a couple of our other favourites:
Three Corner Story: Start by clearing a room that has three clear corners — this is an activity with movement.
In this game, each person gets to tell a story they are practicing or preparing. Maybe it’s for a sales pitch, a monthly meeting, or customer feedback call. As they tell their story, the audience provides live feedback by moving to different corners of the room.
In each spot, you can use a specific object to clearly illustrate what each corner represents, for example:
📚 A book to indicate plot advancement
🧸 A teddy bear to indicate emotional impact
🎨 A detailed painting or artifact to indicate sensory details
As the audience moves and provides feedback, the storyteller can adjust their narrative in real-time, creating a collaborative and interactive storytelling experience that better connects with the audience. They can use that feedback to make improvements to their presentation, so that it’s even better for the real audience.
Story Builders: Sure to get a lot of laughs, this activity involves building a story one sentence at a time. Each team member adds a sentence to the ongoing narrative, creating a collective and evolving story. Each team member can contribute their sentence within an allotted time frame, fostering creativity, collaboration, and active participation. You’ll be amazed by the creativity that your team can generate together.
Don’t let the summer create a dip in your team’s engagement and productivity. Embrace the power of storytelling as a tool to create memorable and engaging experiences for your team, all while keeping them energized during those hot summer months.
Need help bringing storytelling to your team? Find out more about our Storytelling PLAYshop that’s perfect for creating emotional engagement, buy-in with key stakeholders, and learning how to craft clear and concise messages.
