Cover Story
Cover Story is a visioning exercise that encourages participants to imagine a wildly successful future for their organization, as if it were the subject of a major magazine cover story. This method helps teams think expansively and collaboratively about aspirational goals, fostering a shared sense of purpose and possibility.
Use this method when you need to generate excitement and alignment around a future vision, especially when the team is stuck in incremental thinking or needs a creative boost to explore new possibilities.
Solves: Lack of creative ideas, difficulty envisioning a compelling future, limited strategic thinking
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Step 1: Prepare large templates with sections for "Cover," "Headlines," "Sidebars," "Quotes," "Brainstorm," and "Images." Create enough templates for groups of 4-6 people. (15 minutes)
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Step 2: Explain the game's objective: to envision the organization's best-case scenario as a magazine cover story. Define each section of the template. (10 minutes)
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Step 3: Divide participants into groups of 4-6, providing each group with a template and markers. Instruct them to choose a scribe or collaborate directly on the template. (5 minutes)
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Step 4: Ask each participant to individually imagine the organization's best-case scenario for 5 minutes. Then, have the group collaborate to create a unified "story of the year" on their template. (30-45 minutes)
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Step 5: Reconvene the groups and have each group present their cover story to the larger group. (5-10 minutes per group)
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Step 6: Facilitate a discussion to identify common vision themes, areas of agreement, and any concerns about the future state. (10 minutes)
- Emphasize the use of the past tense when describing the future success.
- Encourage participants to suspend disbelief and avoid overly pragmatic thinking.
- Capture common themes and insights that emerge during the presentations.
- Have participants create a short video trailer for their cover story instead of a static template.
- Invite an external "reporter" (another facilitator or participant) to interview the groups about their cover stories.