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J. Kleinen and L. Kurz
3 Results and Discussion
The outcomes of this study can be divided into four areas: The adapted design of
the method, the effect of the design changes (as analysis of the audio tapes), the
evaluation of the format’s reception by the students (as analysis of the survey) and
the resulting guidelines for practitioners interested in using the method.
3.1 Workshop Design
The workshop’s structure is depicted in Table 1. Its main features are the skillbuilding, what-if, storytelling and implications blocks.
Skill-building serves the purpose of familiarizing the participants with the storytelling game mechanic
1 : One person answers one question, the next person the next
question while building on the answer of the first, and so on. It also familiarizes the
participants with one another, building trust.
Once the participants know how to tell a story, they determine its subject. For
this, they develop a “what if”-scenario for the sustainable factory of the future.
Selecting from a wide array of image and text prompts (including the UN Sustainable
Development Goals), they identify shared interests and discuss possible “what if”questions as the basis of a future world. Framing the task in this way encourages
curious, imaginative and playful exploration.
During the storytelling, the questions are divided into eight phases:
• “In a future world” builds a shared vision of a world, characterized by the chosen
“what if”
• “Influenced by a technology” dives deeper into how the sustainable technology
works and impacts the people and society
• “Lives a person” introduces a protagonist through whose eyes the rest of the story
is viewed
• “With a problem” poses that the “what if” creates not only good but also a challenge
in the protagonist’s life
• “He/she tries solving the problem intelligently and fails” leads to a first proposed
solution
• “The situations gets worse” explores the consequences of that failed first attempt
• “And reaches a climax” pushes the story to an extreme, exploring both positive
and negative outcomes before deciding on a final course of action
• “At the end, stand the consequences” steps further into the future, reflecting on
how that situation played out.
Each question is printed on a separate card, which the students draw in a fixed
order.
1 Similar to how the LEGO© Serious Play© method uses skill-building.
J. Kleinen and L. Kurz
3 Results and Discussion
The outcomes of this study can be divided into four areas: The adapted design of
the method, the effect of the design changes (as analysis of the audio tapes), the
evaluation of the format’s reception by the students (as analysis of the survey) and
the resulting guidelines for practitioners interested in using the method.
3.1 Workshop Design
The workshop’s structure is depicted in Table 1. Its main features are the skillbuilding, what-if, storytelling and implications blocks.
Skill-building serves the purpose of familiarizing the participants with the storytelling game mechanic
1 : One person answers one question, the next person the next
question while building on the answer of the first, and so on. It also familiarizes the
participants with one another, building trust.
Once the participants know how to tell a story, they determine its subject. For
this, they develop a “what if”-scenario for the sustainable factory of the future.
Selecting from a wide array of image and text prompts (including the UN Sustainable
Development Goals), they identify shared interests and discuss possible “what if”questions as the basis of a future world. Framing the task in this way encourages
curious, imaginative and playful exploration.
During the storytelling, the questions are divided into eight phases:
• “In a future world” builds a shared vision of a world, characterized by the chosen
“what if”
• “Influenced by a technology” dives deeper into how the sustainable technology
works and impacts the people and society
• “Lives a person” introduces a protagonist through whose eyes the rest of the story
is viewed
• “With a problem” poses that the “what if” creates not only good but also a challenge
in the protagonist’s life
• “He/she tries solving the problem intelligently and fails” leads to a first proposed
solution
• “The situations gets worse” explores the consequences of that failed first attempt
• “And reaches a climax” pushes the story to an extreme, exploring both positive
and negative outcomes before deciding on a final course of action
• “At the end, stand the consequences” steps further into the future, reflecting on
how that situation played out.
Each question is printed on a separate card, which the students draw in a fixed
order.
1 Similar to how the LEGO© Serious Play© method uses skill-building.