That giant sucking sound you're starting to hear whistling past the door seals on Microsoft campus buildings are the hopes of (hundreds? thousands? tens of thousands?) employees being whisked into the void that is rapidly becoming LisaB's internal "I'm listening, but it's not in my commitments to do anything with what you tell me" blog.
The blog appears to have ground down to four camps. 1) People who will bitch about anything and everything, even when presented with positive information. 2) People who think we have some serious problems and propose serious solutions or proposals to fix things. 3) People who think things are mostly OK, and berate those in group 1 and 2 for their negativity and ungratefulness for how good we really have things and encourage people to vote with their feet if they don't like it. (Hi, Mini!). 4) The lurking group that is beginning to tune out as it appears the blog, which began with such great hopes, is a HR ploy to create the illusion that something is being done.
I was neutral on Lisa until her blog launched and it nudged my opinion of her up to positive. Six months on now and the needle has swung to negative based on her condescending comments.
Now, more than ever, it's clear that our executive leadership is completely disconnected from the reality that is working life for the lunch box crowd and that it is past time for change.
Let them eat bunnies, indeed.
I'm in the number 2 bucket, with a peppering of number 1 bitching to go with those suggestions. And now I'm becoming disallusioned as you say as well about the fact that some GREAT solutions have been proposed to all sorts of things, and NOTHING is being done. Seriously, why would we need to wait once a year to see any change even incremental.
ReplyDeleteI can't say that I'm any more or any less hopeful now than when the first posting was made. The internal blog sounded like a good idea, but it was never anything like a dialog. From the beginning it gave me the sense that the pronouncements are made from some balcony up high (in the ivory tower?) while the rest of us were left to simply talk amongst ourselves. (I haven't seen a noticable drop in interest in MiniMSFT, either).
ReplyDeleteI worked at MSFT back in the "glory days" (i.e. when the stock was on the rise). And I remember "the good ol' days that many seem to long for, but those days are gone.
Are they gone forever? Who knows? Stranger things have happened in the tech world. Unfortunately, there have been very few corporate revolutions while there has been a lot of money in the bank. The revolutions usually only occur in desperate times. Things might not be as wild and crazy as they were in the 90's, but they are far from desperate.
For many companies, 5-10% annual growth is considered quite healthy. I used to joke what would MSFT be like when they experienced only 10% annual growth, as opposed to the 30-50% they had in the 90's. Well now we know.
So, until the revolution occurs, I'll continue to dutifully fill out my commitments, resolve my bugs, attend my meetings, and, whenever I get the chance, inject a pinch of creativity here and a dash of passion there, but in the end I deliver a decent job, they deliver a decent paycheck and everyone goes home happy (at 5:00).
What's the problem?
So you're the one that degraded my kitty or bunny comment by making them dinner.
ReplyDeleteActually, no he didn't. And after a recent taste test, I now reverse my recommendation.
ReplyDeleteEeeewwwww.
If you have a problem with InsideMS, blame it on those #1 people who are really making every other poster look bad. The #4s (of which I am a member) cringe every time we have to read those #1 posters exhibiting such poor level of intelligence, articulation and analytical abilities.
ReplyDeleteMakes one wonder, "these folks work here?"
Funny thing when I was there, we had to go to SteveB to get approval to buy AutoCAD. Steve didn't understand why we couldn't use the "Paint Brush" application already in Windows. And this is the guy that BillG choose to run the show, scary thougth.
ReplyDeleteSo, until the revolution occurs, I'll continue to dutifully fill out my commitments, resolve my bugs, attend my meetings, and, whenever I get the chance, inject a pinch of creativity here and a dash of passion there, but in the end I deliver a decent job, they deliver a decent paycheck and everyone goes home happy (at 5:00).
ReplyDeleteWhat's the problem?
Your potential. Our passion.
That's what. There's no passion, no spark in 9-5 clock-punchers.
The organizational system that exists today is a direct result of leadership and management decisions and the net result is that it stifles internal passion and creativity.
The other problem is that leadership and management seem unable or unwilling to change the system to unlock the internal passion company-wide. There are pockets of passion scattered about but they appear to be the exception rather than the rule.
I chose to work at Microsoft for the opportunity to make positive changes for the 1B people that use our software. Instead, I've found that while there are no shortage of ideas, there is a huge dearth of vision.
Ambition after ambition falls back to the corporate mean or is sacrificed on the altar of consensus decision-making to the gods of don't rock the boat too hard.
It's like working at Boeing in the 1980's and early 1990's: dull, predictable and the competition is eroding our market due to our apathy and inability to ship anything ground-breaking.
Microsoft needs a 777 and follow-on hit like the787.
Instead, we have XBox, Zune and Live.
Our 747 and 737's, Windows Server and SQL, still generate great profit for us and we'll milk them until there's no more profit to be wrung from the teats, but our future is increasingly cast in the Server and Tools world, like a utility, instead of a Devices and Entertainment world, which is where the new profit opportunities are.
Nobody talks about their utility unless they screw up but everybody raves about their latest gadget or geegaw.
When was the last time you heard somebody raving about something Microsoft?
Clock-punchers, and the leaders and managers that tolerate them at Microsoft, do not create products that people rave about. That is our problem in a nutshell.
RE: Clock-punchers, and the leaders and managers that tolerate them at Microsoft, do not create products that people rave about.
ReplyDeleteI think you've got the cause and effect mixed up, just a bit WRT "clock punchers."
The clock punchers are not tolerated by management, they are created by management. When you deliver below COLA raises for above average performance, and cap off upward mobility, and choke innovation with layers of "process" (a.k.a. red-tape), you get "clock punchers."
All is not lost, of course. Clock punchers might be boring, but they are predictable and predictable is the name of the game, these days.
The biggest clock-punchers I see are in management. The last two GMs I've worked for (both "made men" aka partners) were 90% AWOL. I've worked for the current guy just over three years, as his skip-level. In three years, I've seen him make, um, let me think. I've seen him make about three decisions. An average of one a year! Wow. One decision was good, one was terrible, and the jury is still out on the third (this year's decision of course - not enough time for it to play out yet).
ReplyDelete