There is a retrospective aspect to learning. We use hindsight to structure and codify knowledge gained in the past for the benefit of the future. The case study method, as a genre of teaching, injects an interactive element into an analysis of the past. What would you do if you were a key player? What decisions would you make when placed in a similar situation? By transforming the past into a pliant subject of study, we affirm our ability to shape the future to meet our aspirations.
In November 2020, PEP U — PepsiCo’s global learning center of expertise — published a set of case studies, “What We’ve Learned in 2020.” COVID-19 compelled our associates around the world to flex and innovate in unprecedented ways. The PEP U team saw an opportunity to help the organization reflect on and learn from its operational decisions even as new situations were unfolding across the globe. The rigor of the case study method felt like an apt counterpoint to the volatile business environment.
COVID-19 upended our notions of time and ushered us into what seems like an eternal now. By March 2020, February felt like a different era; by August, our certainties about the future were rendered irrelevant. It felt no longer possible, or even viable, to wait for that moment of pause to seek knowledge through reflection. And yet, news kept emerging of the jaw-dropping ways in which PepsiCo teams were keeping the business running through the pandemic.
A virtual town hall in spring 2020, normally a time for business updates and celebration, became a dazzling catalog of how associates and groups were learning to surmount the pandemic’s unique challenges. In Carrigaline, Ireland, associates used cutting-edge telecom technology and nimble team coordination for the remote manufacture of concentrate batches. In Arlington, Texas, a beverages facility was repurposed to produce hand sanitizer. And in Israel, PepsiCo-owned SodaStream’s R&D and engineering teams partnered with Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital to build a novel type of ventilator called the Stream02. There were numerous such examples of teams capitalizing on their knowledge reserves and existing strengths to work through challenges and achieve startling outcomes. It was an L&D team’s dream come true.
As the PEP U team began working on the COVID-related case studies, we reached for analogies to explain what we were undertaking. We saw ourselves as horse whisperers, trying to interpret and document a fast-moving beast of a situation. We felt like we were being asked to notate jazz even as it was being improvised. The PEP U team had to get in there and pin down COVID-19’s “eternal now” to extract teachable lessons before they were forgotten.
As any seasoned journalist will attest, preparation is key to gathering information. When your sources are on the front line, busy surmounting the chaos of ever-evolving circumstances, you don’t want to be yet another imposition on their schedules. Our case studies could never be more important than the day jobs people had to perform to keep the business running. We spent weeks fine-tuning the structure of the case study document and the input form, and then spent more weeks framing the most crucial questions for each team. We needed to reassure our sources that we were seeking to better understand how they did what they did, and that they just needed to tell us what they already knew.
Our field associates offered up information over Zoom calls and in emails. They shared photos, and self-recorded videos and put us in touch with additional sources so we could obtain varied and robust perspectives for each case study. The process demanded patience and agility — our contacts would often go silent, only to resurface weeks later with stories of how they’d overcome new COVID-related challenges at their respective facilities.
After several months of sustained effort and collaboration, the PEP U team finally went live with our first set of case studies. We packaged them into a course available on PEP U Degreed, our learner experience enterprise platform, and promoted them through internal communication channels. We also made discussion questions available to managers and leaders to use for deep dives with their respective teams. Our aim was to spark conversations among teams and self-reflection among associates. For example, what innovations would they design if they were sales reps needing to wash hands in a water-starved region? (Sales reps in Costa Rica installed water containers atop delivery trucks with pipes running down the sides.) Or, how would they accommodate a sudden pandemic-induced shift from in-store to online shopping? (Turkey’s sales and marketing teams leveraged digital platforms to create a home delivery campaign that enabled customers to achieve better year-over-year performance.)
As it stands today, PepsiCo’s North America offices are yet to open. Many other regions are still in lockdown. Our organization’s appetite for understanding and learning from the past will only increase in the face of COVID-19’s continuing demands on the present. We hope that the case studies we’ve compiled during these trying times will provide PepsiCo associates a useful map to analyze past decisions and reflect on and learn from their outcomes.
As the learning center of expertise, we have a responsibility toward the future. We haven’t stopped scanning the horizon for new innovations at PepsiCo. We haven’t stopped refining our case study structure or brainstorming ways to delight our learners. Even as this is being written, we’re in the final stages of publishing a case study on how a team designed and delivered Lean Six Sigma training simulations in a customized Minecraft environment, aided by an 11-year-old! Clearly, nothing can stop PepsiCo employees from marching onward. Regardless of what new situations the years 2021 and beyond bring our way, the work won’t stop. The learning can’t either.
