Image by Clarita
Sometimes the simplest games have the most direct impact.
Story Story Die is one of my favourite games, and a consistent favourite with workshop participants. What makes it so attractive is the same thing that makes the blues attractive: it is a structure that is elegant in its simplicity, and yet invites endless variations. Because the structure is so simple, it is easy to pick up the basics, but allows a master performer unlimited scope for improvisation.
The audience loves it for the same reason: the underlying structure is so simple, it makes it easy to see when someone is doing something magical. It lets the audience ‘in’.
The underlying structure of the 12-bar blues is 3 chords played over 16 beats. The structure of Story Story Die is just as simple:
Four to six players form a line on the stage. A title for a story, and a story genre is obtained from the audience. The MC starts the game by pointing to a player, who starts telling an improvised story. At any time the MC points to another player, who must continue the story flawlessly, even if the switch happens in the middle of a sentence or in the middle of a word. That’s the Story Story part.
The Die part happens when the players hesitate, or their sentences are not grammatically correct or don`t make sense. When the audience hears the mistake, they yell out ‘DIE’! The player drops out of the game. Or they fake a melodramatic death if they are a ham.
I use this game in my workshops for three reasons:
- Story Story Die is so easy to get started and it is instantly fun. You don’t have to worry much about character, scene setting, physical acting, etc. Just stand there and tell a story.
- It is a fantastic exercise in focused listening and spontaneous speaking.
- It is like the blues: easy to start, but allowing endless room for play and creativity.
Take-aways
When I debrief this game with participants I suggest three things to take away:
- Your contribution will be as good as your listening. On the shop floor or in the board room, the temptation is to mentally pre-write your contribution before it is your turn to speak. The fatal error in this is that you miss all of the important stuff that is feeding the ‘story’. If you don’t listen with complete focus, at best your contribution will be anaemic, off-message, and missing opportunities to move a process forward; at worst you will come across as tone-deaf and working ‘outside the team’.
- Don’t out-think the process. Often people allow their fears to shut down important conversations with senior management, difficult employees, or in challenging client situations, by outthinking the conversation. We play a game of mental chess: “If I say this, they’ll say this, and then I’ll have to respond like this, and then they might do this…” While we should always do our homework and be respectful of others’ positions, it is not our job to think for them. Just start the conversation, listen like crazy, and say what needs to be said. If you start from a place centered in your own values, and in a listening stance, you won’t go wrong.
- Mind your P’s & Q’s. Often when we are under pressure or unprepared, we fall back on poor habits of grammar or speech. This is a great exercise for mastering old-school skills of good grammar: no switching tenses, no fumbles, no ums, no likes, and no circling around… Because after all, what pressure could be greater than dying when you say “um”?
To learn more about how an improv workshop can take the blah-blah-blah out of your next retreat or management seminar, contact Clemens at clemens@clemensrettich.com. Improv takes great team-building and management strategies, and makes them real and unforgettable.
