Exformative learning with cooperative storytelling
this is a recurrent 6-hrs live online workshop
facilitated by Francis Laleman, with Charles-Louis de Maere
the next edition comes in two 3-hrs parts, the first on Sept 2 and the last on Sept 9
07:00-10:00 New York Daylight Time
12:00-15:00 London Summer Time
13:00-16:00 Brussels Summer Time
19:00-22:00 Beijing, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur
header picture: women holding objects, artwork by Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941)
pictures by Francis Laleman, Amalya Laleman Michaela Broeckx
where this comes from
In the winter of 2019-2020, learner experience designer and facilitator Francis Laleman traveled to Buenos Aires and Montevideo (in Argentina and Uruguay), for a tour full of pop-up workshops, forum theatre, research, and time to write. At the same time, Charles-Louis de Maere was telling stories in Lima, Peru.
Building on these experiences, in 2020, during the first lockdown, Francis published his book on exformative learning, and Charles-Louis started experimenting with stories and storytelling on Zoom, reaching a global fanbase as the Corona pandemic went through its ups and downs, only to reach an apocalyptic zenith in India, in April and May of this year.
It wasn't long before Francis and Charles-Louis, who had been friends and had been doing stuff together for a long while, joined hands and came up with ideas to combine their two strands of storytelling.
This workshop, which premiered under the tutelage of the Learning Development Accelerator with Matthew Richter and Sivasailam Thiagarajan Thiagi, is the outcome of this collaboration.
(storytelling with rabindrasangeet, workshop at Borealis, 2019)
what this is
Cooperative storytelling is where the narrator is not the sole designer of the narrative - but, like in life, our stories get intertwined and it is up to every participant to stay in sync with her environment. Everything blurs into everything - narrator, actor, non-actor, spectaCtor rather than spectator, ACTience rather than audience.
Exformative storytelling is where the narrative is not information given, but immersion in (and the outcome of) seemingly haphazard experiences, like events, or meetings with people, works-of-art, objects, whatnot.
Cooperative storytelling is an excellent exformative learning format, which can be used in any context whatsoever, in life and at the workplace, and with any subject matter, from machine engineering to safety to software to the so-called "soft" skills in teams and leadership.
(objects in an "objectification" workshop at Bayt al-Andalus, June 2018)
how this unfolds
Participants are welcomed into a playful learning space - which they themselves start filling up with objects brought from the environment of their own homes and carrying memories and experiences from their own lives. In a very strange way, our collection of objects is an "objectified" version of our shared realities.
Gradually, a series of narrative formats are being introduced, with participants working in pairs, not unlike software developers would be doing in paired programming setups, but this time really playing tomfoolery with semantics, getting concepts, names, meanings and understandings all wrong and mixed up.
As the confusion grows, new insights emerge, from collectively construed storylines, with objectifiers and vocalizers or signifiers, dancing in pairs like grebes on the surface of a pool.
Later in the day, we add more constraints, like storyboard models, subject matter, and timeboxes - until we find that for every constraint added, a new sense of liberation is experienced.
(assorted objects from the workshop with LDA , May 2021)
what people have said about this
a wonderful cooperative learning experience ... my mind is still nibbling on all the tasty mind-treats!
an absolute treat to learn and share these exformative techniques
my experience today surpassed my expectations ... learning through practice from and with this wonderful group ... observing true cooperative facilitation by Francis and Charles-Louis
Nick Perry, Sharon Leigh, Vasya Vankova (participants in the May 2021 edition of this workshop)
one of the most intriguing techniques that I took from Francis' little book on Resourceful exformation is the idea of cooperative storytelling, where we either are thrown straight back into the erstwhile forgotten experiences of our childhood, or we learn to co-create stories in the corporate world, but with the vigor of what happens in a kindergarten ... both possibilities are equally mind-boggling
Kartik Agarwal, Jaipur
this workshop on cooperative storytelling was by far the most exciting event of the entire festival. truly a never-seen-before, but very suitable as a plug-in to the old Indian storytelling tradition
Participant in the 2020 edition of Une Soirée Pleine d'Histoires, An Evening of Stories, a yearly storytellers' festival by the Alliance Française du Bengale and the Culture Monks Theatre Group, Kolkata
(kathakoli & cooperative storytelling, live online from Kolkata, 2020)
registration
Do not miss out on this experience.
Like almost all our work, this is event is offered on a pay-what-you-think-is-fair basis.
Registration is in two steps:
First get your admission ticket at the rock-bottom price of €30
Then adjust the facilitation fee according to your own choice and circumstances.
Optionally, you can also buy the Resourceful Exformation book from the workshop registration link.
scene from the online workshop with LDA, May 2021