Storyboards: A how-to guide for engaging and visual workshops
Storyboards are an underrated workshop tool. They’re versatile, engaging and visual. As a facilitator I use storyboards all the time to help groups develop and interrogate ideas. Storyboards are so easy to incorporate into a workshop. All you need is a sheet of paper, a pen and the seed of an idea.
This short guide will walk you through how to use storyboards. At the end of this blog you’ll find a link to a free, downloadable storyboard template to help you get started with this powerful collaboration technique.
How to use storyboards in your next workshop
Preparation: Find a large sheet of paper (A3 or larger is ideal) and a thick marker pen
Draw your frames: If you don’t have a template create eight boxes on the paper, four on the top row and four on the bottom row. These will be the frames for your story
Plot the narrative: Being as creative as you like, or keeping it simple with words and stick figures, plot out the idea step by step within the frames. This visual representation helps everyone see the flow and journey of the idea
Voila! You have a storyboard ready for discussion and evaluation
Enhancing collaboration with storyboards
In a larger group environment, developing a storyboard works best in breakout groups of up to five. This exercise needs a minimum of 15 minutes or can work well for up to an hour if the idea needs lots of discussion and detail.
Often I throw in prompts tailored to the context to consider on the storyboard. I might ask the group to think about opportunities and risk, customers and stakeholders, monitoring and evaluation, or even a legacy beyond the life of the idea.
Evaluating your storyboards
Finally, comes some form of evaluation. With a large group that’s created lots of storyboards you could create a gallery, allow sufficient time for everyone to review all of the boards and perhaps vote on their top board. In a smaller group, it might suffice to have a discussion about what’s been learnt about an idea from the storyboard exercise.
Turning an idea into a storyboard is just the beginning. Next it’s all about detailed planning and delivery.
Storyboards in action
Here’s two real-life examples of how I’ve recently used storyboards with groups.
Local authority engagement strategy: At a series of workshops for a borough council, community leaders used storyboards to develop proposals with the potential for the greatest impact. The storyboards focused on community engagement and the ideas were incorporated into an engagement strategy
Museum public programming: During a creative off-site for a major museum, hundreds of ideas for a public programming strategy were generated. These were filtered down and the best ones were worked up on storyboards, creating a visual repository of ideas that will be developed and delivered in the short and long term
I love chatting about facilitation techniques like storyboarding. If you’ve used storyboards and want to talk about your experience, or if you’re curious about how they could benefit your team, please get in touch. We'd love to talk!
Download Tangram’s free storyboard template here.
