Microsoft doesn’t always get it right.

Shocking, I know. But take my word for it, a surprising number of the inventions and experiments that are devised within the company walls never see the light of day.

When I first arrived at Microsoft, a seasoned veteran named Wendell pulled me aside and told me how group competition works at the company. “Microsoft believes in fostering fierce battles among its employees,” he explained. “The company knows that every employee is out to prove that they have the best idea for a new program or OS or something. So Microsoft sets up two or three groups and tells them all to invent the same thing.”
“The same thing?” I said. “But if it’s an OS, that could take a long time.”
“Right.”
“And a lot of money.”
“You have no idea.”
“So why not just give all that money to one group and let them figure it out?”
“Because that’s not The Microsoft Way.”
“The company believes in competition.”
“Thrives on competition. Lives for it.”
“Does it work?”
“You tell me.”

Since that day, I’ve heard that expression “The Microsoft Way” about four million times, denoting a certain unique method of doing things, whether it’s interviewing a prospect, writing a program, or intentionally mispronouncing the word “processes” by using a long E on the last syllable. This is in high vogue at Microsoft. Kojak would have called it an M.O., modus operandi. (”Who loves ya, baby?”)

I might not always agree with The Microsoft Way, but I’m smart enough to know that I’m not smarter (nor richer) than the people who invented it, namely Gates and Ballmer. So, mispronunciations and all, if it works for Bill and Steve, I’m cool with it.

Some of my fellow co-workers have likened Microsoft to the military. These are obviously people who have never been in the military. I have, and trust me, Microsoft is nothing like the military. Microsoft is a large, energetic, somewhat paranoid enterprise that delights in absorbing other entities and often seems to dabble in incongruent industries for sport.

Ok, so maybe Microsoft is like the military. But at least I don’t have to wear a uniform and salute my manager every time I pass him in the hallway.

All this comes to mind because I recently discovered that I’ve been involved with one of Microsoft’s internal competitions. As a technical writer, I server on various teams and workgroups, one of which is trying to figure out the best way to interact with customers through online Help manuals. Let’s say that you, the customer, reads a Help page that I’ve written that tells you how to, say, write an article. But you don’t particularly like the way I’ve written the page. I’ve dangled participles and misplaced modifiers to the point where you’re sure that: 1) I’m a moron; 2) I’m on Percocet; or 3) I’m a moron on Percocet.

My group is trying to invent a way for you to save the rest of humanity by informing Microsoft that I’m certifiably nuts and should be fired at the earliest possible opportunity.

Well, our workgroup was suddenly and completely disbanded. Yes, it was a heartbreaker, but another group just seemed to always be three steps ahead of us. Their idea will be used to create this wonderful new customer response system. Was the other group smarter? Maybe. Did they work harder? Probably. But as a tenured employee, I prefer to think that they just got lucky. Regardless, the result will be a spiffy new system that will let customers sound off to someone who will actually listen to them. That has to be worth something, right?

At Microsoft, we understand that software customers come in all shapes and sizes with various points of view. Some people will be the first ones to buy a Microsoft product off the shelf and others will always be the first to resist it. But love it or hate it, Microsoft is a company that knows how to succeed by hedging its bets. And from what I’ve seen during my short tenure here, I’m still confident in Microsoft’s chances for continued success.

That’s something I could never say about any other company I’ve worked for. (Are you listening, Novell?) And I’m beginning to think it’s something of a rare quality.

Maybe that’s also part of The Microsoft Way.