Twice-told stories

This is a simple exercise that is easy to facilitate. Basically you ask people to choose a story from among those that come up, which they will retell to you, or if you have more than one group, to the whole room, or if you have more than two groups, to another group. You can give them a selection criterion or ask each group to come up with their own.

It's best not to allow people to pick "the best story", because that will bring out performances instead of truths. The better thing is to choose (or help people choose) a criterion that is related to the goals of the project, like "choose the story that best exemplifies what we need to change about our community" or "choose the story that you think the mayor most needs to hear".

Which story is chosen to be retold is actually unimportant when this exercise is used in generative mode, though it may be telling. What is most important is that the task of selecting a story with some (any) characteristic causes people to help each other tell stories. The social obligation to help the group carry out the collaborative task can trigger contributions that might not have been put forth if there was no task to complete.

During the time when people are telling and selecting their stories, you should of course be taping (or having observers write down) every word people say, but you should leave the groups alone and either stay in the background or leave the room entirely. I've found that having quiet music playing during this part of the session creates a sort of restaurant atmosphere that encourages people to talk.

Because this is the easiest exercise to facilitate, it's a good one to start with if you feel you need to build competence (and confidence) in conducting exercises.