Culture Wars

History's first draft, if we bother to go back and examine it, tends to be couched in the terminology of the times, and that terminology also is folded back into the pop culture of its era. Microsoft has not escaped this lensing in the current era.

From the outside, Microsoft might appear to be a corporation with multiple-personality disorder. Those of us on the inside know the truth.

It's just batshit crazy at times.

Organizational cultures reflect their founders first, previous leaders second and current leaders third. Future leaders are either encouraged to incubate culture changes or they struggle to create their own culture because the existing culture is virulently resistant to change.

At Microsoft we are currently amid wrenching cultural change, but like all major changes its manifestations are varied and effects on population groups scattered.

Obvious public skirmishes in these culture wars show up as Dev vs Test vs PM and Old School vs New School over at Mini-Microsoft. Less obviously, it shows up as towels and valet parking.

The real action is on the inside though.

It happens in meetings when questions are asked, and there are no good answers.

"How does software as a service affect what our team should be doing day-to-day?"

It happens when new hires mix with old hires.

"Things used to be easier without all this process." (Old) "All of the old guard fuck up the process by ignoring it." (New)

It happens when past cultural momentum crashes into current reality.

Open warfare in meetings between people who are trying to get work done and those who think that they are by bullying and shouting at people.

In fits and starts, things are changing, yet the next outcome is still unknown. We're trapped inside a Magic 8 Ball being shaken about by leaders looking for a better prognostication. The irony is that the answers exist in the skirmish lines of this war. Every clash, every idea mismatch, every unanswered question is an opportunity for a leader to step forward. Looking up and down the line from this grunt's perspective, there is no Honeycutt in sight yet, and the bodies continue to pile up.

With Bill moving on, we do have a golden opportunity to re-cast the culture. Will our leaders lead us from distraction to distraction and keep us divided or to a unified corporate culture that works together to just get stuff done?

Until the current rough draft of history starts talking about Microsoft as a leader again instead of as a follower, (insert your own Apple/Google/MySpace/Yahoo! news links here,) the battles will rage on.