The Suddenly Story Activity
The Suddenly Story is an ideal activity to encourage creative thinking, teamwork, active listening and spontaneity. If you’ve ever told stories around a campfire, you may have done a variation of this activity.
The team will be able to tell fantastic and incredible stories with this interesting group activity. Each person will tell three sentences of a story and end with the word “suddenly…”
It also encourages people to think on their feet and connect with the story that has already been told, which is intended to stump the next person who speaks. Everyone gets a turn to talk in this game, so quiet group members have an equal chance to participate.
This activity can be adapted to groups of any size, although it is not recommended to play with more than 25 people. For smaller groups, the story can continue in the room until the group is stuck.
Gather the group into a large circle and ask one person to offer three opening sentences for a story on any topic. The first person says three sentences to start a story and at the end says “Suddenly…” and passes the story to the next person.
The next person has to start with “suddenly,” and then build on that story with three sentences of their own, and so on. Once everyone in the group has spoken, you’ll have an unpredictable story — bonus points if you record the activity to share for future team-building exercises!
Moment of Reflection
- What were you thinking about while you were waiting for your turn to speak?
-How did it feel to be a creative part of a part of history? Did you feel any pressure or responsibility when speaking? Why? - At what other time in our lives does this same pressure occur? What impact does it have on our behaviors?
- How do you consider collaboration, cooperation and teamwork in this group?
- What does it take to foster a safe and supportive space where creating is a completely rewarding activity?
The topics of this publication: integration, interactions, foster relationships, collaboration, active listening, teamwork, cooperation, creativity, imagination, motivation, improvise, trust
