Histories

This exercise is particularly helpful when people have to recall events over a long period of time, like their entire lives or careers, because it helps them find significant moments to talk about. In a historical exercise, as with all the other exercises, people build something and tell stories along the way. In this case what is built is a wall-sized (or screen-sized) diagram of events on one or more time lines. The diagram is built out of sticky notes stuck to the wall (either where you have already pasted large sheets of paper or where it's okay to stick notes on the wall). If the exercise is taking place virtually, a shared screen can take the place of the wall, and shapes in a presentation program can take the place of the sticky notes.

Basic form

These are the steps in a simple historical exercise.

1. Ask each group of three to six people to agree on a topic that the diagram will explore. This should be related to the goals of the project, like "our town through the decades" or "firefighting through the years" or "our family's journey". Each group should come up with their own interpretation of the main topic that resonates with them.
2. Ask each group to choose a starting date for the time line, or how far back they will consider events. Have them mark the present time and the start date with sticky notes (the present time on the right and the starting date on the left).
3. Ask people to tell some stories that capture an essential description of the present moment, then write a brief title for each story and build a cluster of these notes at the end (the right hand side) of the time line space. They should aim for at least three descriptive stories there.
4. Now have each group work backwards through time, telling stories along the way. Ask people to talk about turning points, or times when things changed in significant ways, in the history of whatever topic they are considering. Depending on the goals of your project you may want to ask them to think about particular types of turning points, like problems, decisions, dilemmas, learning moments, times of joy or despair, times of solidarity or conflict, accidents, surprises, and so on. The more willing the group is to do complicated things the more elaborate you can ask them to get about turning points.

Why ask people to work backwards? The answer to that is an interesting story in itself. Years ago some colleagues and I were conducting a workshop where we had people making fictional time lines to explore possible alternate histories related to a topic. The first thing that happened was that one of the groups drew their time line backwards, with the present moment on the left and the starting date on the right. We looked at that and thought "strange", but left them alone. Next, we noticed that people seemed to add elements to their time lines that seemed appropriate based on what had happened before. In other words they were plodding along in their thinking, running on expectations instead of exploring the fictional space. All of the groups did this, even the one that drew their line backwards. It was just the line, not the time frame they were considering, that was backwards.

But still, this backwards idea got us thinking. In the next exercise, we tried an experiment: we asked people to build one of their fictional time lines by working backwards through time, in effect telling the story from end to beginning. What we found was that the backwards time lines had more imaginative and multi-perspective elements and seemed to allow people to range further in their consideration of possibilities. It stopped people from plodding along and forced them to think more creatively. After that workshop we changed the time line method to use that discovery.

Variations on the basic form

Optionally, you can extend this exercise to an exploration of fictional space. This sort of thing can be very useful when you need to help people open up their emotions about something difficult to talk about. (You can use fictional stories just as you use factual stories; but it's best to mark them so that you know which is which.) To do this, add these steps to those above.

1. After each group's factual time line is complete, they should talk together about what would constitute an inconceivably utopian, perfect, heavenly state of affairs. They can tell some fictional stories around what that state might be like. Ask them to give each of those stories a name, then place the cluster of sticky notes above the present day note, as high up on the wall (or screen) as you can.
2. Now ask people to work the utopian time line backwards and finish it by connecting it at some point to the factual time line (but not to the present moment). Along the way ask people to tell fictional stories that show how the state of affairs transforms to the state of perfection. As with the main time line you can ask them to describe particular moments, like decisions, dilemmas, accidents and so on.
3. When the utopian time line is done, ask people to stop and think about its opposite: an inconceivably dystopian, horrible, ruined state of affairs. Ask them to do the same storytelling around that state, placing the cluster near the bottom of the wall (or screen). Then have them work that fictional line back to the factual line in the same way as with the utopian line.

If you have been recording or noting observations during the entire creation of the diagram, you should have collected quite a few stories about experiences and beliefs.

Two notes about sticky notes:

• You can use the normal square or rectangular kind, but if you can find hexagonal sticky notes they are much better. The main reason is that they fit together in a beehive pattern that makes it easy to cluster related notes together. (The novelty of their shape also sometimes gets people interested in doing something new.) A good source for these is a company called Thinking Tools, but there are several other suppliers on the web now - just Google "hexagon sticky notes" to find more. It's usually a good idea to get more than one color of notes, because you can use the colors to designate things like different types of turning points (this makes it easier to figure out what people meant after the exercise is over).
• No matter what shape of sticky note you use, use big ones. The reason is that when you have a wall filled with notes you need people to be able to see both the detail and the larger picture at the same time so they can "zoom in and out" in their mind quickly. Give people large markers and ask them to write big. If you are doing the exercise on the computer, this can be a bit daunting (it's the worst disadvantage really), but you can get around it partially by either having a large screen or zooming in and panning around a lot.

For further reading

This exercise is also described (with some differences) in the open source method document The Future, Backwards located on the Cognitive Edge web site.