Hero’s Journey is a futurespective activity to help describe a story that the team is pursuing.
Running the activity:
- Explain the intention of the activity: “We are here to collectively write our hero’s journey story.”
- Describe the main areas of your journey. We are focusing on the following areas of our story:
* The hero: the person or group going through the journey.
* The guide: the people and things guiding the hero.
* The cavern: the challenges ahead.
* The treasure: the awards and achievements. - Ask participants to write their notes for each area.
- Group conversation.
We have applied this activity for describing what a large organization transformation would be like. It was very helpful for early identification of the people involved, the main challenges, desired outcomes, and needed guidance. We have also seen it being used after the fact, not as a futurespective, but as an activity to help the team tell a story about a journey they have just gone through.
This activity is inspired by Joseph Campbell’s book, which also inspired many movies, books, tv shows etc. You could play a video about heroes before starting the activity, getting the team into the activity` s mindset.
Remote-team advice: This activity works well for remote teams. Use a remote board of your choice.
CAMPBELL, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New World Library, 2008.