Anecdote - ‘The Story’

Anecdote - ‘The Story’

The aim is to identify similar and divergent characteristics in team actions.

1. The teacher briefly describes a situation in the form of a 'case study'. This situation must represent a typical organisational moment, scenario, or context (e.g. some kind of conflict that usually occurs or an anecdote that can plausibly occur). The description of the case must specify the starting situation, the processes to deal with it and the decisions and the solution adopted.
2. After the presentation of the anecdote (or ‘case’), each of the group members must specify individually:

• 1st: what they would do in a similar situation and why?
• 2nd: what they would do differently and why?

3. The teacher collates all the answers to the first question and groups the responses that are similar.  The teacher then collates all the responses that are different, discordant or contradictory.
4. The groups analyse the actions that are most pertinent to the organizational model and institutional culture and reach a consensus on collegial action to be taken.

This type of activity can help students to identify and diagnose the culture of the team and to enable them to act to improve some cultural practices. It also allows for the analysis of the degree of coherence in the team culture which guides actions and strategies.
The activity could be done using online tools such as Padlet, Miro, Mural, virtual whiteboard and breakout rooms in Teams/Zoom.