Sharing Life Stories
This approach, developed by Karl Lam and Alima Adams has been shared across XRUK and XRGlobal. It is a simple and profound way for a group to build good relationships between its members. Every group and team within XR will have a slightly different culture even though we have all agreed to the Principles & Values. Local Groups will vary across the country; Arts focussed groups will work in a different way to Data focussed groups. The culture of the team will be influenced by the people in it.
We have all come from different backgrounds and different experiences. We have arrived here for a variety of reasons on a whole range of paths. There is no single route to becoming a rebel. This is a simple way to take some time to connect, to get to know each other and the paths we took to get here.
Format for holding a Sharing Life Stories Session
Introduction
Think about the series of events that have taken place in your life, from your childhood all the way to the present day. How have your experiences shaped you and contributed to the decisions which have brought you here? You can go as deep or as broad as you feel comfortable doing in the moment. Establish confidentiality boundaries and freedom for people to share what they wish or not share.
Give everyone space to talk. Preferably this can be done all together as a group or if not in break out rooms of not more than 7 people.
Decide on a period of time to give each participant between 3-10 minutes. You can give participants a sentence starter prompt “I was born ….”
Give participants 2 minutes to reflect and think before they start sharing. It is good to leave some time afterwards for rebels to connect, give some feedback on how they found the process or check out.
The sharing of life experiences helps people come together, to see each other as full and complete individuals, as well as illuminating the reasons they may have for being here. Better understanding of each other as individuals can help a team pull together.
A more in-depth description for running this practice as a workshop can be downloaded here: Life Stories (Google doc).