How can an organisation in crisis demonstrate its commitment to openness and transparency? Toyota, bedevilled by recalls in late 2009 and early 2010, opted to engage via Digg Dialogg.
Digg Dialogg is a remarkable venture in crowd sourced journalism. The Digg community votes questions up or down and the most popular questions are then put to the interviewee. This is way Digg works. It is a social news website, in which members of the community vote stories up or down (digg or bury) and the most popular stories then appear on the front page. Digg Dialogg extends this process to making, and not just sharing, news.
Jim Lentz, Toyota's COO for North America, was interviewed on Digg Dialogg on 08 February 2010. This was the height of the media coverage about the recalls, and the venture was so successful, both for Digg and Toyota, that Toyota's VP for quality returned on 22 June for a follow up interview.
When you are in the midst of a crisis it is easy to assume that everyone else is obsessed by the same things which obsess your organisation. But of the over 1400 questions submitted to Jim Lentz, 60% were not about the recall. The most popular question was "what do you drive?". The question allowed Lentz to talk about his commitment to hybrid cars, about the fact that his family all drive the cars that had been criticised for their safety record, and about the fact that he regularly drives all Toyota's models, and cars from competitors, as part of his own learning process.
Of course, the fact that not everyone was focussed on the recalls did not mean they were not focussed on core issues. There were questions about gas-free cars, and someone wanted to know if Toyota would ever produce a hybrid that is not "as ugly as sin".
Digg Dialogg is open to the criticism that it is softball journalism. After all, the guest is as capable as anyone else of logging on to see what questions are popular. The guest can be extremely well-prepared. But real journalism should not be a game of 'gotcha'. The point is not merely to challenge and catch out the interviewee. There are plenty of journalists in the MSM willing to play that game. At least part of the point, surely, is to ask questions so that the audience or readership can actually learn the answers? From that point of view, interviewing someone who is prepared and briefed is very valuable.
Toyota has been so impressed with the value of crowd sourcing that it has been starting to ask if, one day, a community could design a car.
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