putting stories to work

We have lots of experience of putting stories to work in different contexts. The following is not an exhaustive list:

• coaching leaders to build presentations using small anecdotes to illustrate the main points they want to make
• training employees to listen out for stories that can then be put to work locally or by your communications team to illustrate what your brand stands for
• designing and running story-based workshops that get your employees talking and thinking about what your brand stands for and the part they play in it
• developing and cataloguing a collection of stories that you can draw on and add to in a range of situations, from your induction procedures to your intranet
• creating story slides that you can drop into presentations to give them an emotional dimension.

Islamic Development Bank

As part of a far-reaching project for the Islamic Development Bank, we conducted an oral histories project with the founding brothers of the Bank in order to create a ‘breathing process between generations,’ as the VP Human Resources put it.

We also trained oral historians from the Young Professional programme to continue this work.

This led, among other things, to the Bank running a story competition to rediscover its values in action with beneficiaries and ‘bring the fire of the field’ to the heart of the organization’.

photograph by rogiro