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Storytelling Cubes

When you want the group to learn more about each other, get oxytocin flowing to increase trust and empathy. You use a set of story cubes and let the images inspire your story-telling - they can be used in many different ways. This activity can work for any small to medium-sized group, and even in one-on-one coaching.
1-10
5-20 min

Calm

Preparation

  1. Get a set of story cubes.

 

Steps

  1. Sit in an undisturbed, quiet area.
  2. Decide on a theme, e.g. personal story from childhood, future plans, the experience in the project.
  3. The first person rolls the dice, checks the images that have come up and selects 5 of the cubes.
  4. Depending on your theme, you might have decided on a starting phrase – “When I was a kid..”, “In the last few years..”, “What I really liked..”
  5. The storyteller uses the 5 images in their story. Note that there is no specific meaning for each cube, it is up to the storyteller’s interpretation.
  6. Everyone takes turns to roll the dice, pick 5 cubes and start telling their story. You can time-box the storytelling per person or let the full stories unravel.

What you need

  • Story cubes

Debrief

Ask the group questions to find out what they learned and observed.

  • How did they find using the tool to facilitate sharing stories?
  • What was easy and what was hard?
  • What was the most surprising thing they learned about others?
  • What was the most surprising thing they learned about themselves?

Bonus tip

If you are running a session with remote people/teams, you can be the dice roller and share the outcome on video or photo.

If it an activity you want to repeat frequently with an established team, then it can be worth distributing a set of cubes to all participants.

Story cubes are very much a multi-purpose tool. You can, for example, use them for:

Idea generation in a problem-solving session: A retrospective session, One-on-one coaching, Improv fiction storytelling and possibly a good laugh

Use them multiple times with the same group, the cubes tend to get even easier to use with time.

Creator

Rory O’connor

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