Hi K! Thanks, I’m so glad that you found the article helpful. Components of the approach I outlined here come from two main areas: storytelling in education and world building as a tool for creativity.

On the storytelling and education side, I’ve been involved for some time in using improv theater as a means to foster social skills and connections in players. Yes-And Brain is a great organization that does work along these lines. The Interactive PlayLab is another (I mentioned in the article, too) that uses multimedia story experiences rather than strictly improv. There are also a number of schools that have incorporated tabletop roleplaying games or similar tools into their curriculum in an approach very similar to the ones I outlined in the article. Quest2Learn, a school based in NYC, is perhaps the most striking example of such an approach. And here’s a short blog post written by an educator at another program doing work along similar lines.

On the world building and creativity side, there are lots of organizations doing great work. USC’s World Building Media Lab and World Building Institute are the most prominent examples, and they have links to many more world-building resources on their websites. Somewhat separately, Brian Johnson pioneered the use of world building as a tool for design and innovation in companies in his book Science Fiction Prototyping, which I’d recommend checking out. In much the way outlined in that book, at least two companies, SciFutures and Experimental.Design, offer professional world-building consulting services to corporate clients. Here’s a superb Medium article on those companies.

The approach I discussed here combines the use of storytelling in education with the use of the world building for creativity. The links above give great insights into each of those approaches.

I hope that helps!

Sam