Learning by Doing: Workshop Recipes to Teach business storytelling and how to create a visual story

Workshops are where theory turns into habit. The fastest way to embed business storytelling is through repeated, low-friction practice sessions that mirror day-to-day work. TPC’s 3-part learning journey is designed to be workshop-friendly: teach the language, provide tiny templates, then run practice clinics. This article provides repeatable workshop recipes — complete with timings, exercises, and scripts — so teams immediately learn how to create a visual story and apply it the next day.

Workshop design principles

Effective workshops are short, active, and job-specific. Keep sessions to 60–90 minutes, make every exercise produce a usable artifact, and focus critique on clarity and ask (not aesthetics). Key principles:

Active over passive: minimal slides, maximum doing.

Concrete outcomes: participants leave with a One-Page Narrative, Decision Map, or revised slide.

Peer feedback: structured, time-boxed critique that focuses on the headline and evidence.

Repeatable micro-sessions: weekly or bi-weekly clinics to build muscle memory.

These principles align with TPC’s mission to make storytelling practical and routine for everyone in business.

Roles & setup

Invite 8–12 participants to maintain energy and allow participation. Roles:

Facilitator (manager or storytelling coach): keeps time, models critique.

Scribe: captures key language shifts and examples.

Participants: bring a real artifact (pitch, roadmap slide, metrics update).

Set up a shared doc with the template (One-Page Narrative or Decision Map) and pre-fill a sample to model expectations.

Two workshop recipes you can run tomorrow

Recipe A — 60-minute “One-Sentence Story Sprint”

0–5 min: Quick intro and the “Story first” rule.

5–20 min: Individual work — distill a real artifact into one-sentence headline + three evidence bullets (use provided template).

20–35 min: Paired share — each pair reads the headline aloud; partner repeats it back in their own words.

35–50 min: Group critique — three volunteers present; facilitator asks two clarifying questions per presenter. Focus on clarity and the ask.

50–60 min: Wrap & commitments — each participant states one change they’ll make before the next meeting.

Why it works: compresses the practice, produces tangible improvements, and reinforces the habit loop.

Recipe B — 90-minute “Decision Map Clinic”

0–10 min: Framing and sample Decision Map walkthrough.

10–35 min: Individual work — create a Decision Map from a real case.

35–70 min: Rotating critiques (round-robin): each presenter has 5 minutes to present and 5 minutes for feedback. Use the 10-second test.

70–80 min: Rapid rewrite — presenters apply feedback and resubmit.

80–90 min: Showcase & next steps — facilitators note common themes and announce next clinic date.

Why it works: hands-on, iterative, and produces a directly usable document for decision reviews.

Critique script and rules

Train participants to critique usefully. Use this 3-line script:

“Headline — did I get the one-sentence story?” (Yes/No)

“Signal — which single visual supports the ask?” (Name it)

“Ask — what exactly are you requesting and by when?” (Repeat)

Critique rules:

Be brief: 30–60 seconds per point.

Focus on clarity and action.

No design comments in the first round—only after the story is fixed.

Measuring workshop impact and scaling

Short-term signals:

Number of artifacts produced during workshops.

% of participants who applied changes in the week after the session.

Medium-term scaling:

Train managers to run the same 60-minute sprint monthly.

Create a library of best-in-class artifacts from workshops.

Embed the One-Page Narrative/Decision Map into approval templates.

These steps convert isolated workshops into a sustained capability across teams.

Template pack & facilitator cheat-sheet

Provide a downloadable pack:

One-Page Narrative template (editable).

Decision Map template (PowerPoint/Google Slides).

60/90-minute facilitator guide with exact time cues and critique scripts.

Quick checklist for scoring clarity (headline, visual, ask).

A small facilitator pack reduces friction and ensures consistent delivery as you scale.

Conclusion
Workshops are the engine for learning how to create a visual story. Short, job-focused sessions produce immediate artifacts, reinforce the “Story first, visuals second” mindset, and create a culture of rapid feedback. Use TPC’s three-part journey as your curriculum: teach the language, hand out minimal templates, then run frequent practice clinics. Do that, and your teams won’t just understand business storytelling — they’ll do it every day.