Story of Our Team
A merge ritual: two timelines on a wall become one shared history.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
When two teams merge — through consolidation, downsizing, or acquisition — they arrive with separate histories and no shared identity. Story of Our Team is a facilitated activity where each team builds a physical timeline of its milestones, joiners, leavers and proudest work, shares it, and then branches the two timelines together into one, ending with a forward-looking shared vision.
Origin
Heidi Helfand's own facilitation practice, documented in Chapter 13 of the second edition of Dynamic Reteaming. It draws on her background in participatory education methods (she holds a degree in teaching English and applied linguistics and cites Paulo Freire's problem-posing pedagogy).
Core principles
- 01Merged teams need a shared sense of history before they can have a shared vision.
- 02People bond over what they are proud of building, not over an org chart.
- 03Making the history physical and chronological surfaces what each side does not know about the other.
- 04Every reteaming pattern deserves tactics before, during and after — not just an announcement.
How to run it
- 1
Line up by tenure
Have each team physically stand in order of when they joined their team. This immediately makes the team's history visible and gives everyone a place in it.
- 2
Build each team's timeline
Each team creates a timeline with milestones: when people joined, when people left, significant events, and the things they created that they are excited about and proud of.
Pro tip Include departures, not just wins — the losses are part of the story people are still carrying.
- 3
Share the timelines across teams
Each team tells the other about its milestones and the things it built. The reactions are the point: 'I didn't know you built a system like that — we did too', or 'we've never built anything like that, what did you learn?'
- 4
Branch the timelines together
Join the two timelines into a single one for the newly merged team, marking the merge point.
- 5
Extend the timeline forward
With the shared history established, ask 'we're this merged entity now — what's next?' and build the shared vision on the same timeline.
Pro tip Do this in the same session while the goodwill from the sharing step is still live.
In the wild
Helfand's canonical use is when a business decision merges two companies or two teams — for example AppFolio acquiring a San Diego company to move years ahead in workflow software for law firms — and the people, who were not part of the decision, then have to become one team.
→ The merged group leaves with a single shared timeline, mutual knowledge of what each side has built, and a common view of what's next.
Common mistakes
Announcing the merge and moving straight to roadmap
Skipping the history step leaves two groups with private, competing narratives about who they are and what they've earned, which then leaks into every technical and staffing argument that follows.
Treating the merge as purely a business decision
The merge itself may be decided above the teams, but the resulting team change still needs facilitation. Ignoring the people layer is what turns a sound acquisition into a bad integration.
Is it for you?
Best for
Managers and facilitators integrating two teams after an acquisition, consolidation, or downsizing-driven merge.
Not ideal for
Brand new teams with no history, or one-person moves — there is no second story to merge.
From the transcript
“one activity I do like to do with team that merge is called story of our team”
“each team makes a timeline of they they stand in order of when they joined their team”
“so you have these teams or companies that come together they make shared timelines they share their milestones and things that they built that they're…”
From the episode
The art and wisdom of changing teams
Heidi Helfand (author of Dynamic Reteaming)