Microsoft, Innovation and Servant-Leadership
Last week I wrote about quality improvement programs, how they can hamper innovation, and the danger that lies in applying them to those hard-to-measure things such as leadership skills. Doing so does nothing more than turn people into 'data' or 'widgets' to be counted....certainly far from the purpose of servant-leadership.
I received several comments from readers about this, which I was happy to see. With the blog still less than 2 months old, I'm glad that posts are able to generate some conversation. And it was this conversation that got me to thinking: if companies are having trouble using these quality improvement programs to foster innovation within the organization, what role does servant-leadership play in helping a company be innovative?
This weekend the Wall Street Journal had an excellent article on the inner workings of Microsoft as they develop their new OS, Vista. Jim Allchin, a senior executive, walked into Bill Gates's office and explained that the process for the new version was not going to work. Mr. Allchin explained that the way they have always built software would no longer cut it (mainly because of the way Google, Mozilla Firefox and others were beating them to the market with their products) and that Microsoft had to start over.
Bringing about change and a new way of doing things in an organization, particularily one as large as Microsoft, is not easy. The key is that those within the organization that recognized an opportunity for improvement did not simply mandate it. The process involved consulting with others, demonstrating the current problem so that those responsible for implementing change realize its importance, and slowly bringing along those that are resistant to a new way of doing things.
It is a fascinating story, and unfortunately far too long to go into here. But the end result is that there is a shift among the engineers at Microsoft on a better way to build code. And it has come about because Mr. Allchin began to ask questions about how things could be done better. The end result that Microsoft is aiming to bring products to market quicker. It is this commitment to doing what is in the best interest of those they serve, their customers, that makes this such a intriguing story.
I received several comments from readers about this, which I was happy to see. With the blog still less than 2 months old, I'm glad that posts are able to generate some conversation. And it was this conversation that got me to thinking: if companies are having trouble using these quality improvement programs to foster innovation within the organization, what role does servant-leadership play in helping a company be innovative?
This weekend the Wall Street Journal had an excellent article on the inner workings of Microsoft as they develop their new OS, Vista. Jim Allchin, a senior executive, walked into Bill Gates's office and explained that the process for the new version was not going to work. Mr. Allchin explained that the way they have always built software would no longer cut it (mainly because of the way Google, Mozilla Firefox and others were beating them to the market with their products) and that Microsoft had to start over.
Bringing about change and a new way of doing things in an organization, particularily one as large as Microsoft, is not easy. The key is that those within the organization that recognized an opportunity for improvement did not simply mandate it. The process involved consulting with others, demonstrating the current problem so that those responsible for implementing change realize its importance, and slowly bringing along those that are resistant to a new way of doing things.
It is a fascinating story, and unfortunately far too long to go into here. But the end result is that there is a shift among the engineers at Microsoft on a better way to build code. And it has come about because Mr. Allchin began to ask questions about how things could be done better. The end result that Microsoft is aiming to bring products to market quicker. It is this commitment to doing what is in the best interest of those they serve, their customers, that makes this such a intriguing story.
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