One Word Story

Ever tried telling a story one word at a time?

How about with a team?

That’s what we’re doing today.

Imagine building a house with a team, and you each take turns laying a single brick.

🧱🧱🧱 → 🏠️ 

Sounds chaotic?

It is! That’s the magic of it.

Goal

• Share focus and build a cohesive story ((as a team))

How to Play

The group builds a story together, with each person adding only one word at a time. No planning, no scripts - just pure, unfiltered creativity.

For example:

• Person A: "Once"

• Person B: "upon"

• Person C: "a"

• Person D: "time..."

• and so on…

As the story unfolds, you’ll find yourself forced to think quickly and adapt to whatever comes your way.

It's a great way to sharpen your ability to listen, collaborate, and embrace the unexpected—skills that are essential in any workplace.

Key to success: You might have been expecting the person before you to use a different word, and then you have to adapt and change in real-time. Be open to change! In improv, you must not anticipate scene partners to respond in specific ways.

Example

Watch a great example of people doing this here. Note: They are doing this on expert difficulty by only having two people 🤯 

Great for work…

This game encourages teams to work as a cohesive unit. By focusing on each word, participants must pay attention to the flow of the story, ensuring their contribution fits with the others. It’s a fantastic way to build trust and improve team dynamics.

➕ Everyone gets an equal contribution to the story. There is no dominating the conversation.

Next time you’re gathering the team, start or end the meeting with a One Word Story to get the creative juices flowing. It’s fun and energizing.

Now a word from today’s sponsor, 1440 Media:

News for humans, by humans.

• Today's news.

• Edited to be unbiased as humanly possible.

• Every morning, we triple-check headlines, stories, and sources for bias.

• All by hand with no algorithms.

Sign up now!

Here’s your permission to leave work early this Friday afternoon :)

Tyler