Yesterday was a fun day, really. We don’t have a Steve Ballmer, but we do have Phil Rose. He’s a really enthusiastic man from the UK who’s really entertaining. He’s a real ice-breaker. If the titanic had him on board, it would never have sunken. Heheh. No really. He’s good. Incredibly good.
First we had ‘Welcome’ by Holger Deimling, who explained a bit what were doing here and what the importance of it is to our everyday jobs. Then we had a ‘Get In Touch’ moment. Instead of having to introduce yourself, you had 5 minutes to get to know 3 people in the room. You had to know where they were from, what job they did, how long they were at Microsoft already and ‘one fun fact’. Then you had to introduce them to the rest of the crowd.
The rest of the crowd, that’s about 50 people from 20 different countries from all over Europe and Africa. I met people from Algeria, Nigeria, UK, France, Switzerland… pretty cool. It’s a good thing we’re wearing a label with the name on it because it’s hard to remember all the names. After the ‘Get In Touch’ moment, we had a presentation by Michael Silbermann, who’s apparently high on the corporate ladder here in Germany. I hadn’t heared from him yet, but it looks like he’s streamlining the financial & administrative side of the German sub. He talked about core values and things you should really keep in mind while working for Microsoft. Being accountable is the most important thing (next to being honest and open). If you screw up, it’s your head that rolls, that’s been made quite obvious. He did add that he wasn’t here to scare us with his stories though, but that it’s really important for us to know, especially when you’re in a position when you’re negotiating with customers or making deals. I think “accountable” is the first word in his dictionary. Then he skips all the letters until the ‘I’ from ‘integrity’. He looks like a cool guy. A bit like the typical ’soccer dad’, and it looks like he knows what his doing. He makes sense.
After this talk we had lunch. German lunch is a weird. They have a huge amount of food, I noticed that on the first night already when I went out for a steak in the restaurant next to my hotel (half my plate was covered with steak). The food is really good and there’s always soooo much to choose from. Funky. I had chicken wings with mashed potatoes and fried potatoes and lots of cucumber and carrots. De-licious.
After lunch, we had a presentation by Phil Rose about ‘Living The Brand’. It basically is about the MS Culture and Values - again :) - but it was brought in a really entertaining way with a lot of interaction. We were all divided in groups and had to ‘present’ one of the core values. I had to represent my group to talk about ‘Self-criticism’. Phil brings in the American flavor, which means that everytime a speaker comes up front to talk, the entire crowd is stamping their feet on the floor (obviously) and clapping their hands while shouting ‘woooooooooo’. As you approach the front of the room, the shouting goes harder and harder and everyone is standing up. That’s a very weird feeling, but I enjoyed it, so I went up front really really slow. Heheheh. That’ll teach them.
To present the ‘Self Criticism’ value, I talked about what I had learned from the Windows Live sessions I attended before I joined Microsoft. Back then, Kris Hoet organized a session for ‘influencers’ where he had invited Phil Holden to come talk about the latest things that were going on in Windows Live. The first thing Phil Holden said at that time before he started his presentation was: “Listen up people, what I’m about to present to you isn’t perfect, the things are still running in Beta as we speak, but I want to show this to you because your ideas and comments can help us make it better’. It was back then that I realized how much of a turn Microsoft had made. Instead of pretending to be a company that knew best (at least, that’s how I knew them), they were putting themselves on the same level as us, the crowd. Asking for feedback to help them out, admitting that what they present isn’t perfect and definitely needs some more work.
To me, the open communication culture that has been created back then is the best example of self-criticism, although I’d also call it ‘modesty’. It’s closely related to ‘honesty’, and what it means is: we’re doing our best to get it done right. Things can always go better, but we’re here to learn, and what we learn today will be used tomorrow. We have good products, but some of them need feedback from users to make them better. Realizing this is a big step. That’s why I’m glad I signed up for the evangelist job.
I had to interrupt the session a bit later and skip the rest because I had to make a conference call with some colleagues from Switzerland. We have to set things up for Mix07 to create a cool experience for a group of 200 influencers. It seems like a very promising project, but at this time I can’t tell you much more about it because it’s too early.
In the evening we had dinner at the conference center. Again a huge choice and yummy food. I arrived at the hotel, and I started working on the Second Life project because the clock is ticking for the Vista launch. I created the billboards to place around at various locations in the game, to announce the free concert we’re going to stream. Took me quite a few hours to get it right, but I think I managed quite ok. Tonight I’ll dive into the virtual world again and start placing the announcements to inform the inhabitants.
Today, the second day of MS 101, looks promising, but we’re starting with a delay because a few people are stuck in traffic. Tonight we’ll have a sightseeing tour in Munich. Looking forward to that. I’ll keep you posted. The news says we can expect up to 9 inches of snow by the end of the day (25 cm). I just hope my flight back on Friday won’t be delayed because of this. I hope it’ll stop snowing on Thursday. We’ll see.
