NEO ‘93 vs. NEO ‘09

I spent from about 8:20am until 3:15pm today in Microsoft New Employee Orientation.  Throughout the day, I had incredible flashbacks to my first NEO on July 19th 1993 – some mundane, some more profound; some obvious, some surprising.  Here are some  of those flashbacks and comparisons to today’s orientation.

• Size of the organization: approx 15,000 in ‘93 with 80-90% in Puget Sound v. approx 95,000 in ‘09 with somewhere less than 60% in Puget Sound (the data point I heard was that +40% is overseas – so am assuming that, with so many US folks in non-Puget Sound offices, it’s got to be less)
• Attitude – ‘93 - there was a pervasive sense of immortality and infectious infallibility – laced with the knowledge and excitement of being able to change the world with what we were doing.  In ‘09 – there’s still a sense of impact and being able to change the world, but in a more sustainable way (they even talked about not wanting people to be heroic – instead, wanting there to be more sustainable performance).  There’s also a lot more self-awareness of MSFT’s reputation and of areas that MSFT needs to improve (ie – they talked about wanting to improve the fact that people use their laptops during meetings). 
• Lasting friendships – ‘93 – there were about 40-50 people, if I remember correctly, in that NEO – and I made friends with Yoram Bernet – with whom I’m still good friends today.  ‘09 – there were about 30 people today and it was fun getting to know a couple of the people at my table.  In particular – I met Pradeep – a recent graduate from a Masters program who is going to be a developer.  From him, I learned a lot about the school system in India and expectations/stress.  Fascinating! 
• Lifestage of the organization – ‘93 – everyone at the training was young, there was hardly any mention of families.  ‘09 – almost every slide had something pertaining to families.  I’d guess the average age of the attendee was about 35 (I was older than some and younger than some) and many were asking family questions.
• Work/Life Balance – ‘93 – they shared that “Microsoft will take 120% of you 150% of the time if you give it. Your job is to make sure that you give enough that you’re still excited to come in to work every day”.  ‘09 – it’s recognizing that it’ll never be a real “work/life balance”  – but it’s critical that employees take ownership for their  own work/life plan – knowing that the company recognizes the importance for it.
• Spit and/or Polish – ‘93 – it was in a windowless big meeting room with a simple powerpoint and a presenter.  It took about 3-4 hours.   We did our paperwork at our seats.   ’09 – I walked into a very clear and well prepared set of paperwork filling out zones – and then spent the day in a gorgeous room with a high end projection system.  Over the course of the day, we did see powerpoint, but it also had videos and a demo built into the day – along with a tour of the Library and it’s amazing resources.  Extremely impressive.  While it may be tempting to wonder why the company should incur the extra expenses, it’s also important to recognize that happy, excited, fired up employees will work harder and do better.

Tomorrow – the work really begins and I can’t wait!

Note: It doesn’t escape me that Neo was Keanu Reeves’ character’s name in the Matrix.