How to Improve Teamwork with Storytelling

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Storytelling is a Design Sensibility tool. Design-thinking includes openly sharing experiences on paper or with people for added dimension to problem-solving. The stories we tell our self may be novel or familiar to peers. Sharing perceptions of the way a problem appears or was experienced offers a connection that is unique between the story teller and the listener.

Engage in teamwork by communicating personalized details.

Long-term improvements to mood and health improve (Pennebaker, 1997) when vulnerability forms. Articulated words shape into octaves, fragrances, or whatever sensation the storyteller conveys. Action inherently designs a storyteller’s surroundings (Epstein et. al 2014).

Overcoming trauma creates stories of heroism.

There are numerous words unspoken and stories bound to bones by clinging to fear of sharing. Aging is the framework to un-silencing believable forms words create. Active listeners seek to improve as a Survivor to overcome feeling like a victim (Grossman, 2006).

Questions to Ask:
  1. Are you a survivor or victim in your work role?
  2. What role most often breaks a task down into step-by-step actions?
  3. Describe teamwork in your workplace.

Action is key to Post-traumatic Growth. Incorporate tasks for survival with performance demands on the body, relationships, and community. A simple task like recycling involves few action steps, yet downsizing a closet of clothes isn’t so simple. Both tasks need fore-thought and planning.

To improve story-telling through Design Sensibility schedule coaching through our Equip Package.

GIG Design | Occupational Performance


DESIGN^ideas | Consider what lifestyle activity needs a survival kit prepared for use in a moment’s notice.


DESIGN^ideas | Small spaces benefit from alternative storage accommodations to achieve satisfactory self-care and interdependence needs.


DESIGN^under-responders | consider home office scheme and color considerations for a built environment that lead ‘survivor’ behaviors.
Pennebaker JW. Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic processPsychol Sci1997;8(3):162–166
Grossman FK, Sorsoli L, Kia-Keating M, A gale force wind: meaning making by male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2006 Oct; 76(4):434-43.
S. Diaz,  et al. Biodiversity loss threatens human well-being, Plos Biol., 4 (8) (2006), pp. 1300–1305
David H. EpsteinMatthew Tyburski, Ian M. Craig, Karran A. PhillipsMichelle L. JobesMassoud VahabzadehMustapha Mezghanni, Jia-Ling LinC. Debra M. Furr-HoldenKenzie L. Preston, Real-Time Tracking of Neighborhood surroundings and mood in urban drug misusers: Application of a new method to study behavior in its geographical context,, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Volume 134, 1 January 2014, Pages 22–29

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