Assignment Prompt & Instructions
– ## CreateaVisualOriginStory.docx
– ## Mod1-BuildingyourTeamActivity.pdf
**## CreateaVisualOriginStory.docx**
**Create a Visual Origin Story**
In Module 1 you are to complete the team-building exercise "
[Visual Origin Story: Adventures in collaborative storytelling](https://asu.instructure.com/courses/233075/files/112496319/download?wrap=1)
." This exercise is from the book:
[Murdoch-Kitt, K. M., & Emans, D. J. (2020). Intercultural collaboration by design drawing from differences, distances, and disciplines through visual thinking. New York, N.Y: Routledge.Links to an external site.](https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=6023756)
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 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 together 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 required.
**Phase 1:** **Personal Avatar, To be Completed Individually Prior to Team Meeting**
1.
**Brainstorm:** Create an avatar—an image that will represent your personality—to share with your new teammates. Feeling stuck? This exercise in lateral thinking will help you come up with some imaginative ways to represent 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
• Aspects of your identity that are important to you (cultural, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, etc.)
• 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 develop 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
3.
**Visualize:** Continue to working individually to
**create a visual representation 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 sunglasses, a potato chip with a face, etc.)
· Collage together items from magazines or newspapers
· Develop other creative representations, such as a hand puppet constructed from fabric or other material
· Use one of these free programs to create your avatar:
· Adobe Avatar Maker:
[https://www.adobe.com/express/create/avatarLinks to an external site.](https://www.adobe.com/express/create/avatar)
·
[Links to an external site.](https://www.adobe.com/express/create/avatar) Get Avataaars:
[https://getavataaars.com/Links to an external site.](https://getavataaars.com/)
· Superherotar:
[https://superherotar.framiq.com/Links to an external site.](https://superherotar.framiq.com/)
***** Please note that your avatar can be either a collage-type image that represents you or a character that you create that is symbolic of you.
**There is no one right way to create your avatar**, the important thing is that you create an image that represents you and that you are able to use the image to introduce yourself to your team.
| |
| — |
| **Tips**<br>• <br>**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!<br> <br>•<br>**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?<br> <br>• <br>**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!<br> <br>• <br>**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. |
**## Mod1-BuildingyourTeamActivity.pdf**
132
3.5
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
Establish Trust 133
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.
134 Establish Trust
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?
Establish Trust 135
• 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
136 Establish Trust
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.
Establish Trust 137
• 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?
References
Bal, Mieke, and Christine Van Boheemen. 2009. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of
Narrative. 3rd ed. Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.
Boyd, Danah. 2010. “Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynam-
ics, and Implications.” In A Networked Self, 47–66. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/
9780203876527-8.
138 Establish Trust
Dennis, Alan R., and Susan T. Kinney. 1998. “Testing Media Richness Theory in the
New Media: The Effects of Cues, Feedback, and Task Equivocality.” Information Sys-
tems Research 9 (3): 256–74. doi:10.1287/isre.9.3.256.
Eder, Donna. 1988. “Building Cohesion through Collaborative Narration.” Social Psy-
chology Quarterly 51 (3): 225–35. doi:10.2307/2786921.
Hall, Sean. 2012. This Means This, This Means That: A User’s Guide to Semiotics. 2nd
ed. London: Laurence King Publishing. http://laurenceking.com/product/
This+Means+This,+This+Means+That:+A+User%27s+Guide+to+Semiotics.htm.
Kosara, Robert, and Jock Mackinlay. 2013. “Storytelling: The Next Step for Visualiza-
tion.” Computer 46 (5): 44–50. doi:10.1109/MC.2013.36.
McLuhan, Marshall, and Quentin Fiore. 1967. “The Medium Is the Message.” New York
123: 126–8.
Robert, Lionel P., and Alan R. Dennis. 2005. “Paradox of Richness: A Cognitive Model
of Media Choice.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 48 (1): 10–21.
doi:10.1109/TPC.2004.843292.
Segel, Edward, and Jeffrey Heer. 2010. “Narrative Visualization: Telling Stories with
Data.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 16 (6): 1139–48.
doi:10.1109/TVCG.2010.179.
Short, John, Ederyn Williams, and Bruce Christie. 1976. The Social Psychology of Telecom-
munications. London; New York: Wiley.
**## Mod1-BuildingyourTeamActivity.pdf**
132
3.5
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
Establish Trust 133
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.
134 Establish Trust
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?
Establish Trust 135
• 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
136 Establish Trust
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.
Establish Trust 137
• 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?
References
Bal, Mieke, and Christine Van Boheemen. 2009. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of
Narrative. 3rd ed. Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.
Boyd, Danah. 2010. “Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynam-
ics, and Implications.” In A Networked Self, 47–66. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/
9780203876527-8.
138 Establish Trust
Dennis, Alan R., and Susan T. Kinney. 1998. “Testing Media Richness Theory in the
New Media: The Effects of Cues, Feedback, and Task Equivocality.” Information Sys-
tems Research 9 (3): 256–74. doi:10.1287/isre.9.3.256.
Eder, Donna. 1988. “Building Cohesion through Collaborative Narration.” Social Psy-
chology Quarterly 51 (3): 225–35. doi:10.2307/2786921.
Hall, Sean. 2012. This Means This, This Means That: A User’s Guide to Semiotics. 2nd
ed. London: Laurence King Publishing. http://laurenceking.com/product/
This+Means+This,+This+Means+That:+A+User%27s+Guide+to+Semiotics.htm.
Kosara, Robert, and Jock Mackinlay. 2013. “Storytelling: The Next Step for Visualiza-
tion.” Computer 46 (5): 44–50. doi:10.1109/MC.2013.36.
McLuhan, Marshall, and Quentin Fiore. 1967. “The Medium Is the Message.” New York
123: 126–8.
Robert, Lionel P., and Alan R. Dennis. 2005. “Paradox of Richness: A Cognitive Model
of Media Choice.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 48 (1): 10–21.
doi:10.1109/TPC.2004.843292.
Segel, Edward, and Jeffrey Heer. 2010. “Narrative Visualization: Telling Stories with
Data.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 16 (6): 1139–48.
doi:10.1109/TVCG.2010.179.
Short, John, Ederyn Williams, and Bruce Christie. 1976. The Social Psychology of Telecom-
munications. London; New York: Wiley.
**## CreateaVisualOriginStory.docx**
**Create a Visual Origin Story**
In Module 1 you are to complete the team-building exercise "
[Visual Origin Story: Adventures in collaborative storytelling](https://asu.instructure.com/courses/233075/files/112496319/download?wrap=1)
." This exercise is from the book:
[Murdoch-Kitt, K. M., & Emans, D. J. (2020). Intercultural collaboration by design drawing from differences, distances, and disciplines through visual thinking. New York, N.Y: Routledge.Links to an external site.](https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=6023756)
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 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 together 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 required.
**Phase 1:** **Personal Avatar, To be Completed Individually Prior to Team Meeting**
1.
**Brainstorm:** Create an avatar—an image that will represent your personality—to share with your new teammates. Feeling stuck? This exercise in lateral thinking will help you come up with some imaginative ways to represent 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
• Aspects of your identity that are important to you (cultural, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, etc.)
• 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 develop 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
3.
**Visualize:** Continue to working individually to
**create a visual representation 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 sunglasses, a potato chip with a face, etc.)
· Collage together items from magazines or newspapers
· Develop other creative representations, such as a hand puppet constructed from fabric or other material
· Use one of these free programs to create your avatar:
· Adobe Avatar Maker:
[https://www.adobe.com/express/create/avatarLinks to an external site.](https://www.adobe.com/express/create/avatar)
·
[Links to an external site.](https://www.adobe.com/express/create/avatar) Get Avataaars:
[https://getavataaars.com/Links to an external site.](https://getavataaars.com/)
· Superherotar:
[https://superherotar.framiq.com/Links to an external site.](https://superherotar.framiq.com/)
***** Please note that your avatar can be either a collage-type image that represents you or a character that you create that is symbolic of you.
**There is no one right way to create your avatar**, the important thing is that you create an image that represents you and that you are able to use the image to introduce yourself to your team.
| |
| — |
| **Tips**<br>• <br>**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!<br> <br>•<br>**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?<br> <br>• <br>**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!<br> <br>• <br>**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. |
**## Mod1-BuildingyourTeamActivity.pdf**
132
3.5
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
Establish Trust 133
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.
134 Establish Trust
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?
Establish Trust 135
• 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
136 Establish Trust
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.
Establish Trust 137
• 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?
References
Bal, Mieke, and Christine Van Boheemen. 2009. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of
Narrative. 3rd ed. Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.
Boyd, Danah. 2010. “Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynam-
ics, and Implications.” In A Networked Self, 47–66. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/
9780203876527-8.
138 Establish Trust
Dennis, Alan R., and Susan T. Kinney. 1998. “Testing Media Richness Theory in the
New Media: The Effects of Cues, Feedback, and Task Equivocality.” Information Sys-
tems Research 9 (3): 256–74. doi:10.1287/isre.9.3.256.
Eder, Donna. 1988. “Building Cohesion through Collaborative Narration.” Social Psy-
chology Quarterly 51 (3): 225–35. doi:10.2307/2786921.
Hall, Sean. 2012. This Means This, This Means That: A User’s Guide to Semiotics. 2nd
ed. London: Laurence King Publishing. http://laurenceking.com/product/
This+Means+This,+This+Means+That:+A+User%27s+Guide+to+Semiotics.htm.
Kosara, Robert, and Jock Mackinlay. 2013. “Storytelling: The Next Step for Visualiza-
tion.” Computer 46 (5): 44–50. doi:10.1109/MC.2013.36.
McLuhan, Marshall, and Quentin Fiore. 1967. “The Medium Is the Message.” New York
123: 126–8.
Robert, Lionel P., and Alan R. Dennis. 2005. “Paradox of Richness: A Cognitive Model
of Media Choice.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 48 (1): 10–21.
doi:10.1109/TPC.2004.843292.
Segel, Edward, and Jeffrey Heer. 2010. “Narrative Visualization: Telling Stories with
Data.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 16 (6): 1139–48.
doi:10.1109/TVCG.2010.179.
Short, John, Ederyn Williams, and Bruce Christie. 1976. The Social Psychology of Telecom-
munications. London; New York: Wiley.
**## CreateaVisualOriginStory.docx**
**Create a Visual Origin Story**
In Module 1 you are to complete the team-building exercise "
[Visual Origin Story: Adventures in collaborative storytelling](https://asu.instructure.com/courses/233075/files/112496319/download?wrap=1)
." This exercise is from the book:
[Murdoch-Kitt, K. M., & Emans, D. J. (2020). Intercultural collaboration by design drawing from differences, distances, and disciplines through visual thinking. New York, N.Y: Routledge.Links to an external site.](https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=6023756)
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 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 together 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 required.
**Phase 1:** **Personal Avatar, To be Completed Individually Prior to Team Meeting**
1.
**Brainstorm:** Create an avatar—an image that will represent your personality—to share with your new teammates. Feeling stuck? This exercise in lateral thinking will help you come up with some imaginative ways to represent 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
• Aspects of your identity that are important to you (cultural, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, etc.)
• 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 develop 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
3.
**Visualize:** Continue to working individually to
**create a visual representation 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 sunglasses, a potato chip with a face, etc.)
· Collage together items from magazines or newspapers
· Develop other creative representations, such as a hand puppet constructed from fabric or other material
· Use one of these free programs to create your avatar:
· Adobe Avatar Maker:
[https://www.adobe.com/express/create/avatarLinks to an external site.](https://www.adobe.com/express/create/avatar)
·
[Links to an external site.](https://www.adobe.com/express/create/avatar) Get Avataaars:
[https://getavataaars.com/Links to an external site.](https://getavataaars.com/)
· Superherotar:
[https://superherotar.framiq.com/Links to an external site.](https://superherotar.framiq.com/)
***** Please note that your avatar can be either a collage-type image that represents you or a character that you create that is symbolic of you.
**There is no one right way to create your avatar**, the important thing is that you create an image that represents you and that you are able to use the image to introduce yourself to your team.
| |
| — |
| **Tips**<br>• <br>**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!<br> <br>•<br>**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?<br> <br>• <br>**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!<br> <br>• <br>**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. |
**## Mod1-BuildingyourTeamActivity.pdf**
132
3.5
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
Establish Trust 133
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.
134 Establish Trust
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?
Establish Trust 135
• 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
136 Establish Trust
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.
Establish Trust 137
• 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?
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