About Once Upon a Roll
Hey friends!
This is the newsletter and blog of Once Upon a Roll. We are a team-building company for modern teams that actually want to build trust, and work better together, not just talk about it.
Here's the truth: powerpoint presentations on "team dynamics" and "leadership styles" check a box, but are ineffective.
- 70% of all information taught is lost in 24 hours
- 90% of all information taught is lost within one week
Not great.
The problem lies in the fact that information is held onto when have an experience around it. Not solely by watching a powerpoint.
But if you've ever "experienced" a trust fall I'm guessing the only information you retained was the abject terror of whether Miriam from accounting could catch you (and if she'd suffer a lower back injury in the process).
We've seen how tired businesses are of the same, old rehashed trainings, scavenger hunts and activities developed in the 90s when Franklin Covey agenda's were the rage. But we also know that times have changed and CEOs and team leads are craving something inclusive, fun and effective.
Welcome to Once Upon a Roll, where we use a variety of games, including board games and D&D to help teams work better together.
The Once Upon a Roll difference:
We've built experiences that disguise real team-building psychology as fun. (Sneaky, right?) While your team thinks they're just having a good time, they're actually:
- Practicing active listening and communication
- Building trust through collaborative problem-solving
- Learning how different personality types approach challenges
- Creating shared memories that actually stick (remember that 90% stat?)
Plus, nobody has to catch anyone.
And the research backs this up:
Researchers at the University of California found that collaborative tabletop gaming increased trust between players by 31% after just three sessions.
A study in the International Journal of Role-Playing showed that D&D players demonstrated 18% higher emotional intelligence scores compared to control groups—particularly in empathy and social awareness.
And here's the kicker: teams that engage in narrative-based role-playing exercises show 26% better communication effectiveness in high-pressure work scenarios, according to research published in Training & Development Journal.
The numbers don't lie. Your team just needs the right kind of practice field.
We'd love to design a game for you, sometime.
Laura Khalil
Founder, Chief Storyteller