Smithsonian speaker:
Interview with Linda Coffman
Storytelling and Innovation at Procter & Gamble

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Among the exciting lineup of speakers at the Smithsonian weekend on May 8-10, 2008 is Linda Coffman. She will speak on Friday May 9 and discuss, inter alia, how storytelling has been used at Procter & Gamble as a knowledge transfer technique and as a way of encouraging innovation.

Linda was the Senior Manager, Learning Technologies, in the Global Learning and Development Organization, Procter & Gamble. In her segment, she will show how videotaped stories contain imbedded tacit knowledge that others can identify due to the universal familiarity with the story form. She will also discuss digital storytelling as a method to expand communication channels, and enhance the transfer of knowledge.

Steve Denning talked with Linda recently about her work in storytelling at Procter & Gamble. Here's the first part of the interview.

PART 1: THE CONTEXT OF STORYTELLING AT P&G

STEVE: Linda, could you tell us what's going on in storytelling at P&G?

LINDA: Well, P&G is a very large company and it's hard to think holistically or completely about what's going on in the entire firm. So I'll just tell you about the world that I know.

I have been working in an organization called, Global Learning and Development. which is an umbrella organization that is responsible for core skills and core learning for employees. So we deal with what we call 'core curriculum' which is basically the things that most employees need to know to be successful at P&G. So we don't do function specific skills and knowledge like finance or R&D. We also aren't responsible for business-unit specific skills, like baby care or beauty care.  Our focus is on skills and knowledge that span several organizations or large employee segments.  Global Learning & Development also has responsibility for leadership development, including senior leadership development. My role is focused on the technologies used for learning and recently I've been investigating alternative delivery methods for learning.   That would be alternatives to the delivery technologies we're all familiar with like classroom, web-based training and live-distance learning methods.  We're looking ahead to what's next in learning technologies and investigating ways to use some of the new Web 2.0 technologies.  And actually some of the work has used very old and familiar technology like print media.

STEVE: Could you tell us a little bit about what you've been doing?

LINDA: Well, I've been kicking off a whole series of pilot projects to evaluate different approaches and methods.  For instance I've started a virtual book club, which includes a blog led by an senior company leader who is also a subject matter expert for the content of the book.  There's a project I'm investigation now for  knowledge transfer, using narrative and some web-based technology.

Then there's a body of work that I've done with material from our corporate storyteller, Jim Bangle. Over the past ten years, Jim has collected or authored over a hundred stories. And the stories range from true, non-fictional accounts of events, describing some of the company best practices, leadership techniques or even how people's values line up with the company values.  Many stories deal with the same subject matter but are totally fictional accounts of instances that might have, or could have, happened, stories that have a lesson in them. So some are very much constructed and artificial and some are very real.

STEVE: Who are the characters in the constructed stories?

LINDA: In Jim's constructed stories, he has a whole set of characters that he uses over and over again. They're "compilation characters." So there's Ed Zecutive, and those who hear the stories have come to understand this is our CEO, regardless of who is actually our CEO, since over time, we've had more than one. Then there's Max Profit, who is the finance guy. High Turns is the sales person. Mo' Cases is the product supply or manufacturing person. So you get a sense of how the characters are used and who the characters are.

STEVE: It sounds very much like the contributors and sponsors mentioned on CarTalk, like Dewey Cheatham and Howe.

LINDA: Exactly. Jim uses cutesy names, names with some kind of embedded meaning. One story even has a Martian in it. So there's this creature from another world, that has a role in the story, who comes and asks about what's going on in innovation within P&G.

STEVE: How has your work intersected with Jim's stories?

LINDA: With this rich body of work that Jim has created, I've developed four pilot projects, to asses ways to enhance their use for knowledge transfer. Two of the methods are really simple and they're in print, with some enhanced materials, like a journal. The design here is like the "Daily Drucker", if you're familiar with that, where there's a thought for the day. You read a story on day one, and then you get an suggested action point for day one, and a blank space for you to write down your ideas for action. Then on day two, you don't read the story again, but you get another action point, and again you get another opportunity to create an idea for action.

Then there's a discussion guide format that goes with each of the stories, they could be taken into a leadership team meeting, with discussion-generating questions already prepared, and then anyone can facilitate and add more to it.  These are targeted for leadership team meetings and the HR Business Account Manger could use the discussion guides to help find solutions to common business problems.

So with a hundred stories, there are stories that will fit a lot of different business areas and situations. In virtually any leadership meeting, there are likely to be a couple of stories that could be good fodder for discussion with the leadership team.

STEVE: How do people find the stories?

LINDA: There would be an online portal that would give you some information on the stories. You would be able to download a .PDF file with information about it. And at some point, there may be a keyword search on that to help you find the story.  The stories might also be accessible as learning content via the company learning portal or LMS.

Then there are audio podcasts, in which Jim Bangle is telling the stories, like Books on Tape. So people can subscribe to the podcasts—and here we're getting into some of the newer technology—or you can download it from a website. And we're talking about having MP3 players and loading them with the stories, and giving them to senior managers as a gift.

Then there's putting the stories into a digital format known as digital storytelling where in addition to the voice of narration, you would add background music to support the emotion and visual images all in a streaming file format. It could be played in a Windows Media Player or any of the common players that people have on the computers. And just like with the audio file, there would be a portal that would help you find the stories or there could be RSS feeds for subscription.

There are some stories that are product or function specific and within the company, every organization has its own website. And for some of those, the stories would be pre-selected to be highlighted on that website, where the stories are particularly relevant to that business or organization.

In some way what I'm working on is how can stores be conveyed beyond the face-to-face or person to person direct delivery.  In a global organization like P&G we have to continue to find ways to communicate and educate employees without requiring them to be in the same room.  Digital storytelling may be one technique.

PART 2: MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE'S LIVES

STEVE: Could you give us an example of digital story you've used?

LINDA: Let me give you an example of a non-fiction story. It's a story told in the first person about how a person sees their P&G work aligning with their personal values which essentially increases their commitment to the company.  It's a story told to a P&G manager as she interviews a consumer in a low-income area in India. The Indian woman says she is buying our sanitary napkins for her daughter, not herself. She's doing it because in her mind, she equates that product with one of the fundamental needs in her life which is to help her daughter have a better life.  She explains that buying the Always product will help her daughter stay in school, even during the days when she's having her menstrual cycle.  The daughter doesn’t need to worry about staining, or having others know, and the daughter will get a good education.  The good education will lead to a better life for the daughter.  This is universal story in that all parents want their children to have the best life possible.  And so this woman is making choices about what she buys on a daily basis for her family in order to buy this expensive product so that her daughter can have a better life.  There are things she will not be able to buy for the family in order to buy our product for her daughter.

And she says to the P&G person who interviewed her: "I live my life through my children now. I have no aspirations of my own. My daughter must stay in school. She must get good marks. She must go to college. And then if she wants to marry, fine. But I don't want her to be like me. I don't want her to have two children before she is twenty.”

And the P&G woman brings home the message to us in P&G: "What I learned in talking to that woman is still with me today, that what I do in P&G matters, that it changes people's lives, that it's important for other people." So it's a values story. It's very moving and poignant story and is very effective in the digital storytelling format.

The digital storytelling methodology uses a combination of video, and still images, a voice of narration and background music to support the emotion.  In this digital story when you see the P&G woman as she is today recounting the experience I use video.  But when you're watching the re-enactment with the Indian woman, her daughter and the place where she lives which is a very humble dwelling in India, you're watching still images. The background music is Indian-themed and congruent with the images and the setting and support the emotion.  Then when the P&G woman closes by saying that the lesson she learned that day is still with her, that her job matters, the music switches to a kind of contemporary and a familiar P&G music.  This is a effective story and the digital format makes it more accessible to a broader audience in the company.

PART 3: A STORY TO ENCOURAGE INNOVATION

LINDA: The other story is about innovation and it's a very different piece. It uses characters that are composites of real P&G people or P&G roles and it uses a Martian character from outer space.  The composite characters Jim Bangel has created include Ernestine Engineer from R&D High Turns from Sales, Moe Cases from Product Supply or Manufacturing. So these aren't real people and the story is highly fictionalized. A local media company helped us create the artwork or visual images for the characters. Yet, it's still digital storytelling.

And it’s very cost effective.  The artwork used to create the characters involved drawing them only once. We used the same artwork repeatedly in the segment the characters don’t actually move or change position. The zooming in and zooming out along with a couple of props helps create a sense of movement.  In the story they're in a meeting, and there's a table in front of them and the characters are all facing the front, as if they are facing the camera. So there are no backs of heads—you see everybody.

At the start of the story a little Martian pops in and appears on the table in front of them and he wants to know who or which organization is most responsible for innovation in the company. And the characters take turns in explaining why they think it is their organization. So this piece would be a good piece for new hires into the company to orient them to the different functions, and to communicate that innovation is important in P&G. Six organizations were represented, not necessarily all the functions, but it's good enough.  

Another benefit in using this with new hires is that in this format the piece is contemporary – so it communicates a playfulness about the company or a ‘coolness’ factor. 

The voices are the voices of real P&G people and are recorded in our studio.  However, I have done other digital stories where the audio segments are recorded on a simple MP3 player with recording capability. This is a very inexpensive method.

STEVE: How long do these stories last?

LINDA: I'm trying to keep them under five minutes; three to five minutes is the ideal for the digital format.  As you might imagine, they tend to come in right on five minutes. Stories expand to fill the time available. They're meant to be short. And they're incorporating the newer technology and the newer approaches. They are downloadable and playable on a hand-held device, because that's something that we want to get experience with as well.

PART 4:
THE OVERALL CONTEXT OF SUPPORT FOR STORY IN P&G

STEVE:: So where to from here?

LINDA: We're having conversations now about doing ten more stories and who would pay for that. They've run about $10,000 apiece for the production work and studio time. We had to buy images for the Indian story, as we couldn't find any images where we owned the copyright. That drove the cost of that one up. For the other story, the biggest cost was the company that creates the animation.

STEVE: Are these stories available within P&G only?

LINDA: Yes that's the intention. They are for our staff, especially as you get into the greater bo\dy of work from Jim Bangle, which involves material that we would consider proprietary.

STEVE: Could you tell us more about Jim Bangle and his role? Is his role one of story creator? Or is this something that he does on the side?

LINDA: Jim has a regular day job in R&D—he is well-known and well-respected in R&D. It's more like something he does on the side – it’s probably a personal passion of his. He is in our Vick Mills Society which is a group of people who have made significant contributions to the business through innovation and R&D. He is a long service and senior level employee.  P&G fosters long service employees through our build from within approach.  This in turn means we have lots of P&G stoires, they are valued and P&G employees can relate to them.

STEVE: So as a storyteller, he also comes with credibility within the company?

LINDA: Exactly. Our most senior leaders including the CEO love his stories and wait for new ones to come out. 

STEVE: And what sort of support do you get from the management for this storytelling activity?

LINDA: Within my organization, I'm doing this at the request of my director. I was specifically asked to look for ways to use Jim stories and experiment with alternative delivery formats – beyond the straight text. But to get beyond that, we had to look for money to produce more of the stories. We had to ask the businesses for money. It's not big money, but in the current situation where there's a real fiscal tightening effort going on, it becomes a question of who should be paying. Which organization should be responsible? Jim is R&D. So should it be R&D, should it be Corporate, should the stories be divided up by function, etc?

STEVE: Do people say, "We love this but someone else should pay for it."

LINDA: There was a certain amount of that.  There are 100 stories in total and although not all will be appropriate for the digital format there could be a significant number that are.  And in truth, it’s hard to see them as business or mission critical. They are strategic and important but not critical.  The conversation was still going on when I left.
I would add that Jim was quite skeptical about this work in the beginning —the use of digital storytelling to tell his stories. He was being a good sport about it. But when I showed him the two digital stories, he was just beside himself.  He thought they were just so wonderful.   He couldn't imagine that the digital format would add to the story until he actually saw it. Seeing it come to life, with good animation, added another dimension. So when I left we were using his enthusiasm to help find funding.

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