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America loses $550B annually because 2 out of 3 workers are disengaged. In 2023 Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy called America to be in a “loneliness epidemic”, citing that 40% Americans felt isolated. He sent out a rallying cry for creating a “culture of connection” to combat this. At Stories & Wisdom we enable inclusive cultures of connection.
Our client, a federal organization of passionate, highly educated, and mission-driven individuals, both medical and non-medical professionals, whose mission is to advance holistic, data-driven suicide prevention in the military community. Their team represents a diverse spectrum of society, with 70% of the members being women, a third identifying as individuals of color, and a quarter identifying as LGBTQ+. It was a high-performing but burnout and frustrated team.
Their event objective was to foster a cohesive and motivated team by enhancing empathy and team bonding and strengthening clarity of roles and responsibilities. They wanted their event to be inclusive by design where the event would foster a culture of connection that transcended age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, and physical disabilities (including their vision-impaired colleague), thereby promoting empathy, team bonding, and a sense of belonging within the organization.
Over 8 months in 2023, we ran inclusive experiences - one half day in-person workshop and two hybrid events to enable this culture of connection.
We wanted to design an event where unique perspectives could be valued in an environment where there was an increased psychological safety, where participants would feel encouraged to engage in active listening during team discussions and empathy-building activities. This required a careful design method for the event.
We introduced “STORIES”, a synchronous multi-player digital card game. Developed using neuroscientific methods and the design pillars of Storytelling, Gamification, and Social Learning, STORIES encouraged the team to explore sensitive topics with empathy and mutual support, aligning seamlessly with the organizational mission.
The topics were highly customized to the team’s business needs, but inclusion was at the heart of our approach. Our digital platform was designed to be Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA compatible, ensuring inclusivity for users with low vision, no vision, color blindness, and offering multi-language support and real-time transcriptions.
At our in-person workshop we featured Analog Cards with braille-stickers to make sure every team member could engage.
“… allowed people to not only be relaxed and have fun, but also give them time to develop trust through storytelling which works for teams across all beliefs, cultures and backgrounds.”
“This is a powerful event to facilitate true connection within teams with storytelling as the great backdoor to capture emotions that people have. I think it should be a regularly used tool because not only do teams change, organizations change, but people change.”
The immersive storytelling approach of STORIES led to significant outcomes: enhanced empathy, team bonding, and role clarity.
The overall experience received a 9/10 rating in post-experience feedback, with 91.7% of participants acknowledging successful achievement of intended learning objectives.
Stakeholders recognized the game’s potential for broader applications, expressing enthusiasm for potential scaling and AI integration. Follow-ups with the client are underway for a broader roll-out.
Nomination Title: Inclusive Employee Events with Stories & Wisdom
