Dyer, SuzetteHurd, FionaKenworthy, AmyHedges, PeggyWall, TonyShankaran, ShankarJones, David Raymond2024-10-242024-10-242024-03-21Management Learning, ISSN: 1350-5076 (Print); 1461-7307 (Online), SAGE Publications, 55(3), 432-450. doi: 10.1177/135050762412363191350-50761461-7307http://hdl.handle.net/10292/18186The story we share here is about lessons learned during a three-year, collaborative autoethnographic journey beginning in January 2020. Our story is one of conducting a meaningful inquiry into our shared lived experience amid the changes brought about by COVID-19 lockdowns. Our insights speak to how we collaboratively reflected and researched across institutions, countries, disciplines, and career stages. More importantly, in making our process explicit, we highlight the way storying was experienced within our collective space. In doing so, we explore insights about how stories are adapted and transformed through a process of navigating the development of, and transitions between, pre-public and public spaces. Using an Arendtian lens, we explore the question, How are autoethnographic collaborative stories crafted for research in an academic context? Our insights present a cyclical and developmental frame within which to process collaborative storying and indeed collaborative academic work.© The Author(s) 2024. Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational BehaviourInfectious DiseasesEmerging Infectious Diseases1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy1503 Business and ManagementBusiness & Management3505 Human resources and industrial relations3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviourJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1177/13505076241236319