Asian Development Bank
During 2009 we worked with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to develop a storytelling approach across the organization.
Value stories are critical to the way that ADB markets itself. They are the formal case studies the describe the impact that the ADB’s loans and initiatives have on beneficiaries.
We developed a framework for evaluating ADB’s value stories and used it to identify opportunities for making them more effective. We went on to provide the communications team with new approaches for sourcing and telling their stories. And we developed training and a work book to help the team equip themselves as better collectors, shapers and conveyors of stories of the Bank at work.
The curriculum covers a range of techniques/skills and story types. The techniques/skills include:
- interviewing and elicitation
- analysis and sense-making
- listening and telling.
The types of story covered include:
- value stories
- who am I stories
- I can see you stories.
The physical items we delivered included:
- ‘Beyond: stories and sounds from the ADB region’, a soundscape of the Bank derived from a series oral history interviews and ‘found sound’ of the Bank at work that we recorded on our visits.
- a series of podcasts to be used as conversation starters in induction, management and other sessions
- ‘Reflections and Beyond’, a publication that interweaves extracts from our interviews with folklore and proverbs from member countries.
