The story of creating masterful storytellers.
Once you meet Marija Zivanovic-Smith, you never forget her. Maybe because she lives to make unforgettable experiences.
And that’s why as the new CMO of a 137-year-old tech co, she wanted to give her team of global marketers an immersive story-DOING workshop that was unlike anything they’d experienced.
“Oh, definitely use improv.”
Is what Marija told us when we were planning a full-day immersive workshop around how to think, act, and behave like the badass storytellers they were born to be. (It’s what got them into marketing, after all.)
When we brought up bringing in some improv exercises we’d learned from a few years playing stages, Marija was all HELL YES. We weren’t sure if her teams would be as game.
But it turns out the team was all “HELL YES” too …
“I loved the Storytelling workshop that you put together today and felt like I learned so much from it. I am also the intern who played ‘I am a tree’ today [with the head of Investor Relations]. Thank you so much for challenging us … I was able to network with a lot of new people that I haven’t gotten a chance to meet yet.
— “Ally” the Intern
“Loved seeing the story and learning more about why stories are so powerful. Also to meet many of my colleagues who I haven't worked closely with yet. I really enjoyed this and found it fun and worthwhile.
— Matt B.
““Thank you for leading us on the journey and helping us have a little fun along the way. Can’t wait to get started!”
— Delitha M.
“It was a great experience to get to know the team members better. I was surprised at how much fun we had as well as some of the brain facts. A takeaway is to practice storytelling, especially using some of the framing techniques.”
— Anonymous Squirrel (feedback survey)
“The training allowed everyone to become a stronger team and learn new ways to improve our storytelling.”
— Kiersten W.
“Thank you so much for facilitating! Lots of fun and learning!”
— Michelle M.
“You and your team were INCREDIBLE! Thanks for the partnership and unique/amazing energy.”
— Jessica P.
The day looked something like this …
Before teams arrived they were promised only two things:
Naps and water.
What they got instead was a full day of immersive exercises and a surprise evening treat.
Activities like “Caption this image” and mission case files got the group laughing, chatting, and creating as a group. A few participants told us that was the most interaction and fun they’d had with their teammates … ever.
At the end of the workshop, everyone made a promise to integrate their supercharged storytelling superpowers on the daily. And fun fact: you’re far more likely to keep promises that you write down and post on a wall for all to see.
Most of the day consisted of breakout sessions and lively discussions.
Photos of improv at the office tend to look pretty lame eh? And yeah, a lot of people stifled eye rolls at the mention of improv … Until they started losing track of time—and asking for more.
After a full day of story immersion, the team was treated to live professional improv (from our friends at Dad’s Garage). Some workshop attendees got to go up on stage. Some never wanted to leave.
Oh, and there was a little pre-work to do…
Like clarifying their company story…
Which meant some research …
On the company’s 137ish year history. Plus its current competitors. Customers. The landscape. The future.
And warm up workshops …
To see how teams thought of the company today, and what they imagined it could be.
And interviews …
With the company’s marketers, HR peeps, Sales pros, investor and finance leads, and agency partners.
And synthesis …
To distill roughly 18 million bits of information into a SUPER simple story that sold the brand’s value and vision.
And here’s how Marija felt about it all:
“A HUGE thank you! This has been one of the BEST workshops and I’m so happy that I partnered with you to give my team this opportunity—bringing out their humor, honesty, creativity and great storytelling. You were TREMENDOUS … Thank you for being such an engaging master of storytelling.”
What we did, in short:
Story and strategy consulting
Competitive narrative analysis
Interviews and market research
Storytelling workshop design and facilitation
Shout out to our agency franzzz
Tim Heffernan for your always-amazing insights and support
Taylor Jones at Whiteboard for digging deep and bouncing thoughtful ideas back and forth