Professional Documents
Culture Documents
interactive Stories of Sustainable Development Rich materials come together in the new ADB Sustainable Development Timeline multimedia video. Available: www.adb.org/publications/ interactive-stories-sustainabledevelopment
Building narrative capacity at aDB ADB uses knowledge management tools and methods but must better capture and store its wealth of tacit knowledge. Available: www.adb. org/publications/building-narrativecapacity-adb
Visions of asias Water realities ADBs Water Voices documentary series continues to enjoy popularity a decade later. Available: www.adb. org/publications/visions-asias-waterrealities
of the water utilitys transformation, but he is also able to sell the idea of them solving their own challenges. Storytelling in aDB For a while now, ADB has been using films to showcase accomplishments. ADB-organized conferences have had their share of compelling stories delivered by engaging speakers. And short, punchy, and streamlined articles highlighting results and lessons learned from projects abound, e.g., Knowledge Showcases, Learning Curves, and Country Water Actions. In 2009, ADB took storytelling to new heights by using it to capture, store, and relay its past and present staffs vast knowledge at the level of the organization. This first-ever knowledge harvesting expedition using storytelling yielded hours of reminiscences preserved in audio format. ADB staff talked about their early years in ADB, how things were done back then, the complex situations they faced and the tricky judgment calls they made, the colleagues who inspired them, and the projects that consumed their waking hours, and more. The exercise gave birth to two contributionsADB Reflections and Beyond publication and its audio companion, Beyond: Stories and Sounds from ADBs Region. They transmitted ADBs values and led people into a possible future for ADB. They also whetted in-house appetite for storytelling in other contexts and applications. The overwhelming success of the two products reinforced the value of stories in ADB. More and more staff now use storytelling to collect and connect in
team or community-building exercises, in workshop warm-ups, in back-to-office reports. In 2010, ADB embarked on its most ambitious story-driven exercise yet. It launched the ADB Sustainable Development Timeline multimedia project, which currently hosts over 11 hours of sympathetic reminiscences and expertise rendered in video from 72 ADB staff. The material is broken down into 3- to 15-minute snippets covering a veritable plethora of topics, e.g., communities of practice, corporate governance, gender equity, forest conservation, knowledge management, renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, etc. But, beyond these, the interactive platform also contains short documentaries of projects shot on location, sounds, B-roll footage, animations, graphics, voice-overs, videos, statistics, photo essays, etc. The product has been warmly received, both in and outside ADB, and augurs well for ready use in staff recruitment and induction, learning and development, conferences and other events, education, and external relations.
Maria Christina Dueas and Olivier Serrat
Read the original think piece at www.adb.org/features/ahead-curvelong-reach-short-tales.
cOnTacT Knowledge Sharing and Services Center Asian Development Bank 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines Tel +63 2 632 6710 Fax +63 2 632 5236 knowledge@adb.org www.adb.org/site/knowledge-management/features
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