Episode 2 | Microsoft General Manager Shelley McKinley

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06/05/2018 Added

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Shelley McKinley

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[00:00:00.500]Hi it's Katelyn, producer of the Rural Futures podcast.
[00:00:04.490]Subscribe where you listen so you don't miss an episode
[00:00:07.090]and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
[00:00:09.720]at Rural Futures, thanks for listening.
[00:00:12.845]But at the same time, it's also rural and urban.
[00:00:15.420]How do we bring these worlds together in a positive way?
[00:00:18.370]We have that opportunity today more than
[00:00:19.670]we've ever had before.
[00:00:20.720]Today we have the internet that connects us all.
[00:00:23.740]At least that connects us who have access.
[00:00:28.040]Rural Futures, the podcast where we connect thought
[00:00:31.430]leaders and doers at the intersection of technology
[00:00:34.910]and what it means to be human.
[00:00:36.720]Every episode we talk with entrepreneurs, researchers
[00:00:40.060]and achievers to create impact for generations to come.
[00:00:44.670]And now, here's Dr. Connie.
[00:00:46.880]Hi and welcome back to the Rural Futures podcast.
[00:00:49.590]Today it is my pleasure to introduce Shelley McKinley,
[00:00:52.470]General Manager of Technology
[00:00:54.030]and Corporate Responsibility with Microsoft.
[00:00:55.880]Welcome to the show, Shelley.
[00:00:57.000]Thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:58.330]We are super excited to have you here
[00:01:00.382]and you know, this is the first time we've physically met
[00:01:03.530]and so I think this speaks to the power
[00:01:05.150]of online relationships and communication.
[00:01:07.780]But before we dive into what you do at Microsoft, we'd love
[00:01:10.750]to just know a little bit more about you.
[00:01:12.670]So tell us who you are.
[00:01:13.810]Who is Shelley McKinley?
[00:01:14.990]All right, I was born in Missouri in Kansas City
[00:01:19.760]and stayed there until I was about five years old
[00:01:22.110]and then I moved to Texas with my parents and I grew up
[00:01:24.610]in the Dallas area and I spent many, many summers
[00:01:27.770]back and forth between Kansas City and Dallas.
[00:01:31.970]I stayed in Texas until I was about 21 years old
[00:01:34.730]after I finished my undergraduate degree
[00:01:36.730]and then started moving west.
[00:01:39.110]After that I spent about a year in Idaho as a ski bum
[00:01:43.550]before moving to the Seattle area to go to law school
[00:01:46.120]and then on to Europe a couple of times and working
[00:01:51.520]in Seattle most of my adult life.
[00:01:53.560]So tell us a little bit about what Microsoft is doing,
[00:01:56.910]you know, we've known about the Rural Airband Initiative.
[00:01:58.860]One of the parts of the roles that I have at Microsoft
[00:02:01.650]is I work on environmental sustainability issues
[00:02:04.130]as well as rural broadband issues, accessibility issues,
[00:02:08.007]for people with disabilities and human rights issues,
[00:02:11.390]all fall under our umbrella of corporate social
[00:02:14.000]responsibility.
[00:02:15.210]And that is not all the corporate social responsibility
[00:02:17.230]work that we do, that's the part I work on directly.
[00:02:20.140]I have many colleagues that also do many other things
[00:02:23.110]that are related.
[00:02:24.200]I'd like to dive into a little bit about yourself
[00:02:27.060]as a leader.
[00:02:27.893]I wanna read this 'cause I thought this was a really cool
[00:02:30.600]piece of just information that I learned about you.
[00:02:33.950]So the group that you're leading, the Technology
[00:02:35.910]and Corporate Responsibility group delivers on Microsoft's
[00:02:38.470]mission of empowering every person and organization
[00:02:41.580]on the planet to achieve more by ensuring that the
[00:02:44.830]opportunities of technology are available to all
[00:02:48.170]and used to solve some of the world's
[00:02:49.990]most pressing challenges.
[00:02:51.930]That's huge.
[00:02:52.763]That's a huge mission statement and a big undertaking
[00:02:56.190]as a leader.
[00:02:57.023]So tell us a bit about your leadership style and philosophy
[00:03:00.010]to accomplish that mission.
[00:03:01.640]Sure, well we have a great thing about Microsoft
[00:03:05.470]is we've had a brand new CEO about three years ago,
[00:03:07.950]a guy named Satya Nadella and it was a huge change for us,
[00:03:11.090]a huge cultural change for us.
[00:03:13.390]One of the great things Satya's done is really kind
[00:03:15.380]of think about what are the principles of leadership,
[00:03:17.760]what are the things that make people successful leaders?
[00:03:20.800]I really enjoy his way of thinking about it which is
[00:03:24.750]generating energy, creating clarity and delivering results.
[00:03:28.540]Now every leader is gonna have strengths in different parts
[00:03:31.340]of that and weaknesses in different parts of that
[00:03:33.350]and so what I think my strength is
[00:03:35.950]really around creating energy.
[00:03:37.200]I'm a very energetic person.
[00:03:38.990]I'm very passionate about what I do and I think
[00:03:41.220]by doing that you can certainly bring your team along
[00:03:43.670]and you have to be able to bring your team along.
[00:03:45.682]You have to be able to articulate a vision and you have
[00:03:47.640]to set goals and you have to hold people accountable
[00:03:50.070]to them but if you're not passionate about what you do,
[00:03:52.140]at least for me, then it wouldn't work for me.
[00:03:54.160]That's my strength.
[00:03:56.380]Creating clarity, that's that clarity in vision.
[00:03:58.700]What am I supposed to do?
[00:03:59.900]What are we all reaching for?
[00:04:01.500]How can we have a common mission that really
[00:04:03.460]unites us as a team?
[00:04:04.940]And you'd think with the different things that I oversee,
[00:04:08.360]we have people doing a lot of different things
[00:04:10.480]and so having people really focused on what that
[00:04:13.190]core mission is, even though I may be doing accessibility
[00:04:16.890]or I may be doing environmental sustainability, which can
[00:04:18.470]seem very, very different things, we're all very focused
[00:04:21.420]on this mission of empowering everyone around the planet.
[00:04:24.800]These things are very, very interrelated.
[00:04:26.810]So from a leadership perspective, I would just say I think
[00:04:30.630]you need to constantly be looking at what is my strength,
[00:04:33.170]what is my weakness.
[00:04:34.003]How do I do the best I can in my strengths and how do I
[00:04:36.830]certainly improve on my weaknesses and so always learning
[00:04:39.310]and improving and listening to others
[00:04:41.530]is incredibly important.
[00:04:43.550]I'm relatively new in this job.
[00:04:45.080]I've been at Microsoft for 12 years so I know the company
[00:04:47.920]relatively well.
[00:04:49.420]This job I've been in say eight months to a year
[00:04:53.020]so it's something I've been able to learn a lot about
[00:04:55.360]and what I found is you have really smart people
[00:04:58.650]working for you.
[00:04:59.590]Listen to them.
[00:05:00.905](laughing)
[00:05:02.049]So important because we don't always do a good job
[00:05:04.740]of that, right?
[00:05:05.573]We don't.
[00:05:06.510]Listen to them, understand what they're thinking about.
[00:05:09.200]What you will find is if you are open to hearing what other
[00:05:11.720]people have to say and to not being immediately set
[00:05:15.610]on the path that you think is the right one, you might
[00:05:18.280]learn something and you always will learn something.
[00:05:20.840]I found surrounding myself with other people who are
[00:05:23.854]as passionate and creative has always been the
[00:05:28.140]best way to success.
[00:05:29.370]I know as a leader too, you are very inclusive
[00:05:32.000]and your team is very diverse.
[00:05:34.240]It's something I've learned over time.
[00:05:36.970]Before starting this job, I was in Europe with Microsoft
[00:05:39.620]for five years and I had the opportunity to work
[00:05:41.380]with people around the region and we covered 50 different
[00:05:44.420]countries which is a little more than Europe but according
[00:05:47.260]to Microsoft sales territory, that was included
[00:05:49.270]in the European sales territory and that included Mongolia.
[00:05:52.730]So that was part of my territory as well.
[00:05:53.703]Wow, that's cool.
[00:05:54.750]But we didn't have people in every country but I dealt
[00:05:57.880]with people that spoke different languages, that had
[00:05:59.890]different cultural points of view every day so everything
[00:06:03.110]was quite enriched by these different points of view
[00:06:05.010]and you can learn a lot.
[00:06:06.200]When I came back to the US, to Microsoft's headquarters,
[00:06:09.960]I thought, "Huh, I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna get a
[00:06:12.107]"team full of regular Americans."
[00:06:15.940]What I found, to my delight, was that in fact,
[00:06:19.260]when I came back I started working with a team that had
[00:06:22.160]people from all different cultures.
[00:06:24.510]I have a team, accessibility team, which I have I think
[00:06:28.300]four people who have visual impairments that work for me.
[00:06:30.850]Our Chief Accessibility Officer is deaf.
[00:06:34.410]She can read lips fantastically which is always,
[00:06:36.870]I'm always like whoa.
[00:06:38.438]I always forget she's deaf and I'll do things like we'll
[00:06:40.970]go into the ladies room and I'll keep talking
[00:06:43.440]to her when we go into separate stalls, then I'm like,
[00:06:45.907]"Oh Jenny, wait you couldn't hear me, could you?"
[00:06:48.210]She's like, "I thought you were talking to me."
[00:06:49.500]But you know, she couldn't hear.
[00:06:51.290]So you learn so many things from people like that.
[00:06:54.958]One of the kind of crazy things, the questions people ask
[00:06:58.680]were, "How do you say hello to a blind person?"
[00:07:01.780]Right.
[00:07:02.613]And Jenny says, "You say hello, number one,
[00:07:04.867]"number two, you ask."
[00:07:06.150]So I learned I need to kind of announce myself when I'm
[00:07:08.300]coming down the hall and say, "Hi Ann, I'm on your right."
[00:07:11.820]And then of course after she saw me several times,
[00:07:14.150]she knew who I was from my voice.
[00:07:17.330]Then when we have morale events, how do we make sure
[00:07:19.610]that they're accessible for everyone?
[00:07:21.780]Research has shown that diversity, in the beginning,
[00:07:24.090]can make teams start a little bit slower as they get used
[00:07:26.630]to each other but very quickly, diverse teams achieve
[00:07:30.010]much, much more than non diverse teams.
[00:07:32.350]So working at a place that is diverse and inclusive is
[00:07:36.480]really one thing that I will not compromise on.
[00:07:39.670]Could you speak a little bit about some of the advanced
[00:07:42.620]hiring practices Microsoft is really developing
[00:07:46.610]and I would say, leading in so many ways?
[00:07:50.090]We have a couple of things that we do.
[00:07:51.880]We're very focused certainly on racial diversity
[00:07:56.490]and bringing in minorities.
[00:07:58.980]We are also incredibly focused on bringing people
[00:08:01.380]of all kinds of different skill sets.
[00:08:03.610]So I think we have to make sure that we focus
[00:08:06.150]on underrepresented minorities and we also expand our
[00:08:08.820]horizons as to what does diversity actually mean.
[00:08:12.580]Gender diversity clearly is one key thing.
[00:08:15.417]Bringing in people with different kinds of abilities.
[00:08:18.350]As a company our success depends on our ability
[00:08:20.880]to serve our customers.
[00:08:22.400]If we don't reflect what our customers are, then how can
[00:08:26.410]we actually adequately serve them?
[00:08:28.508]We have a program that we recently started called
[00:08:31.060]the Autism Hiring Program and we were featured
[00:08:32.788]on the news recently, you may have seen that.
[00:08:34.777]Yes, absolutely.
[00:08:36.070]So incredibly amazing what you're doing.
[00:08:38.310]What we do is how do we figure out how to make the best
[00:08:41.790]possible interview experience for a person who maybe
[00:08:44.180]doesn't do well in the standard interview experience
[00:08:47.060]and so in that example, we bring people on campus basically
[00:08:50.565]for a week, who can work and show us their skills instead
[00:08:55.250]of having that one hour pressure cooker interview
[00:08:58.230]with a bunch of questions, a person with Autism
[00:09:02.430]generally is not going to love that type of interview
[00:09:05.090]and may not shine to their fullest potential.
[00:09:07.250]So when you bring them for these alternative types
[00:09:08.990]of interviews, you're not sacrificing on quality at all
[00:09:11.820]but what you're doing is giving that person opportunity
[00:09:13.620]to demonstrate their skills and your team will be so
[00:09:15.300]much richer for it.
[00:09:16.350]I love how you're expanding that definition
[00:09:18.890]of what it means to be diverse and inclusive but then also
[00:09:22.210]changing your culture, your practices, the strategies
[00:09:25.770]to make that actually happen rather than just giving it
[00:09:28.940]lip service and then not exploring, well what does that mean
[00:09:31.870]and how do we change as an organization to make sure this
[00:09:34.580]really happens and not just in a way to say we're doing it
[00:09:37.970]but in a way to really make people thrive in that
[00:09:40.220]environment, which also of course, helps Microsoft, right?
[00:09:43.250]So if they're doing well and if they're highly engaged,
[00:09:45.720]Microsoft does better but also it is that representation
[00:09:50.500]of your customer base.
[00:09:51.570]So how do we better serve customers through our team
[00:09:55.400]but also knowing what our customer's needs and wants are
[00:09:57.990]in a very quaint way, in a very cohesive way that increases
[00:10:02.470]that level of understanding?
[00:10:04.063]So how do you see, to recap leadership a little bit,
[00:10:08.770]how do you see leadership evolving in the future?
[00:10:11.240]I think leadership is going to depend more and more
[00:10:13.920]and more on diversity inclusion.
[00:10:16.273]You cannot have leaders who aren't diverse and inclusive
[00:10:21.100]who are really bringing everyone else along.
[00:10:23.810]I think that what we'll see is technology leadership.
[00:10:28.060]The good news for people who don't study engineering
[00:10:31.240]is that everything is going to continue to need the
[00:10:33.530]humanities behind it.
[00:10:34.950]Oh dive into that.
[00:10:35.998](laughing)
[00:10:36.831]Tell me what you mean by that so everyone can breathe a
[00:10:38.760]collective sigh of relief.
[00:10:40.280]You can still study law, you can still study economics,
[00:10:43.030]you can still study social sciences.
[00:10:45.140]Because as things such as Artificial Intelligence
[00:10:47.840]really get traction we'll have machines that are
[00:10:51.140]making decisions, right?
[00:10:53.830]So how do we make sure those machines make a decision
[00:10:56.520]in an ethical way?
[00:10:58.600]When you're an engineer and you look at a problem,
[00:11:01.330]we like to say, you know, when you're a hammer,
[00:11:03.190]everything looks like a nail.
[00:11:05.063](laughing)
[00:11:05.896]So when you're an engineer, you're probably just trying
[00:11:06.967]to get to the most efficient way to get it done, right,
[00:11:09.830]and so ensuring that not only engineers understand humanity
[00:11:13.530]and social sciences but making sure we have people
[00:11:15.840]in the technology industry that while they may love
[00:11:18.070]technology, they aren't engineers themselves, they have
[00:11:20.460]a skill set in the liberal arts so they can bring
[00:11:22.600]to the picture to ensure that we develop using ethical
[00:11:27.100]principles but that's built in from the start.
[00:11:30.170]Everything we do really has that sense of ethics
[00:11:32.330]and values built into it so we understand
[00:11:35.760]how does an algorithm work?
[00:11:37.780]How do we get from where we were to where we are
[00:11:40.960]in an intentional way.
[00:11:42.460]Not just in an engineering way that gets you to the most
[00:11:44.440]efficiency immediately.
[00:11:46.030]At the Rural Futures Institute, that's really what we've
[00:11:48.450]been exploring but I think what is missing from that
[00:11:50.990]conversation is exactly what you're talking about.
[00:11:54.650]Humanity will continue to change and evolved over time
[00:11:56.977]regardless of technology but at the same time, it's this
[00:12:01.410]interaction and what new jobs or careers or businesses
[00:12:05.125]will be created in this next generation economy
[00:12:08.320]that we see evolving.
[00:12:09.570]What does it mean to be both high tech and high touch
[00:12:12.097]in that economy so that the world does have technology
[00:12:15.736]and it's used in these really thoughtful intentional ways
[00:12:19.470]like even, earlier today, talking about is it possible
[00:12:23.070]to use AI in rural development or community development
[00:12:26.490]in different ways?
[00:12:27.323]How do we take this concept and help scale what we do
[00:12:31.030]or make it more sustainable or even more impactful
[00:12:33.965]by leveraging technology rather than having every community
[00:12:38.190]sort of bootstrap itself and do its own thing?
[00:12:40.490]What understanding can we develop not only locally
[00:12:44.150]but globally around this?
[00:12:45.780]At our Institute we've been working with the Japan society.
[00:12:48.260]Japan's very interested in this.
[00:12:49.740]India is very interest in this.
[00:12:51.190]So I think there's real opportunities for rural
[00:12:54.320]in this space but at the same time,
[00:12:57.300]it's also rural and urban.
[00:12:58.580]How do we bring these worlds together in a positive way?
[00:13:01.750]Well I think we have that opportunity today more than
[00:13:03.900]we've ever had before.
[00:13:05.300]In every previous industrial revolution we've had,
[00:13:08.620]jobs have been lost and new higher paying jobs
[00:13:11.340]have been created.
[00:13:12.173]It hasn't always been an easy situation.
[00:13:15.180]I think we have the opportunity in this revolution,
[00:13:17.610]this fourth industrial revolution that we call it
[00:13:19.950]to really be thoughtful about it and sure that what
[00:13:23.100]we're doing, we're reskilling people.
[00:13:25.490]We're developing really quickly.
[00:13:27.550]The technology is just really changing things at just a
[00:13:30.240]breathtaking speed.
[00:13:31.073]Absolutely.
[00:13:32.620]So how are we going to ensure that people have the
[00:13:34.640]digital skills they need to get these new, better,
[00:13:37.010]high paying jobs?
[00:13:38.820]When you think about, just go back to 1905 when you had,
[00:13:45.810]New York City was fueled by horses, literally by horsepower.
[00:13:51.140]Really not that long ago, it wasn't that long ago.
[00:13:53.680]And then over 20 years, those horses were replaced
[00:13:56.720]with motorized vehicles.
[00:13:58.660]There were entire industries at that time that were built
[00:14:02.150]on maintaining those horses, feeding them, cleaning up
[00:14:05.160]after them, creating parking spots for the horse carriages
[00:14:09.300]and in 20 years, that was all gone and those
[00:14:11.340]people had to transition.
[00:14:12.950]We're gonna have that same thing now where we have people
[00:14:15.940]who are in jobs today that are no longer going to be around
[00:14:19.300]but our ability to navigate this successfully and create new
[00:14:23.060]jobs and retrain people to take those new jobs is going
[00:14:26.790]to be critical to landing this industrial revolution
[00:14:29.199]in a way that's much better than we've done in the past.
[00:14:33.160]So when you think about rural and urban today we have
[00:14:37.080]the internet that connects us all.
[00:14:39.460]At least that connects us who have access
[00:14:42.280]to internet and broadband and we know we're facing a huge
[00:14:44.510]challenge in rural America on internet access and really
[00:14:48.810]on broadband access.
[00:14:49.860]I mean, most places you can still get somewhat of a signal.
[00:14:53.720]Not everywhere but you don't wanna sit there while your
[00:14:56.913]data downloads at just an excruciating rate.
[00:15:00.590]That's not really internet.
[00:15:01.730]You have broadband speeds everywhere so as we get more
[00:15:04.830]broadband those rural and urban divides can be bridged.
[00:15:08.480]If you're a kid, how do you access your homework
[00:15:11.112]if you don't have access to the internet?
[00:15:14.190]It's actually mind blowing for people who live in areas
[00:15:16.870]with good internet access.
[00:15:18.240]How would I actually do that?
[00:15:20.760]You can't make a room more nervous today than
[00:15:22.460]if you turned off the Wi-Fi in the room and people
[00:15:24.810]couldn't access their devices.
[00:15:26.400]That's absolutely true.
[00:15:27.450]We tried that with my nieces before.
[00:15:29.370]It's like they went through withdrawal, just setting
[00:15:31.920]their phones over on the counter.
[00:15:33.790]But like you said, they're learning through that.
[00:15:35.690]They're living essentially through access in some
[00:15:39.440]way, shape or form and it's not all just entertainment.
[00:15:42.463]It's really advancing people's lives
[00:15:44.700]through that technology.
[00:15:46.400]Entertainment is great.
[00:15:47.810]It is, absolutely.
[00:15:48.882]We know that, I mean who doesn't wanna put a movie
[00:15:50.780]on for that kid while you're driving across country.
[00:15:52.700]Now there's no doubt, it's a necessity of life.
[00:15:55.601]But when you think about advances in telemedicine,
[00:15:59.260]advances in agriculture, advances in, you name it,
[00:16:04.530]education, small businesses.
[00:16:06.090]Imagine not being able to pay your bills online.
[00:16:10.610]A small business not being able to access
[00:16:12.340]their accounting software.
[00:16:15.371]All of those things, if you don't have broadband access
[00:16:17.990]in communities, how can you actually take advantage
[00:16:20.610]of the opportunities that the new fourth industrial
[00:16:23.560]revolution brings, you can't.
[00:16:25.606]That's something that's critical that we are very focused
[00:16:28.710]on is getting access to these areas.
[00:16:31.464]Telemedicine I think is a great one too.
[00:16:33.568]Oh absolutely, huge.
[00:16:34.670]I think a disproportionate number of our veterans live
[00:16:37.102]in areas that don't have great access, they're also a
[00:16:39.793]community that really need access to good medicine
[00:16:44.073]and when you have to drive for hours to get to the next
[00:16:46.720]hospital, I remember when my grandmother, until she died
[00:16:49.190]a few years ago still lived in rural Missouri.
[00:16:52.350]So we had to drive her from Gravois Mills to Jefferson City
[00:16:56.470]to get to the hospital or to Columbia to get to one
[00:17:00.200]of her doctors and that was a good hour and a half drive.
[00:17:02.850]Now she drove until she was 91.
[00:17:04.680]Wow good for her.
[00:17:05.557]She didn't like driving up to Columbia
[00:17:07.940]but when we would go visit her, my Dad was up there a lot
[00:17:10.270]and would drive her into town.
[00:17:12.110]Imagine if you could do that over the internet,
[00:17:14.400]over the phone.
[00:17:15.540]You could avoid a lot of your trips you make every year
[00:17:18.470]and you could have better access to more frequent
[00:17:20.400]and consistent healthcare.
[00:17:21.830]So these are huge issues that can be tackled
[00:17:24.420]with the internet and underpinning that isn't just,
[00:17:27.969]it doesn't just happen when you have the internet.
[00:17:29.400]It's all of these advances in technology that are really,
[00:17:33.000]like Artificial Intelligence that are allowing us
[00:17:34.950]to take big data sets and use machine learning and computing
[00:17:39.960]on them in order to develop insights and take intelligent
[00:17:43.410]action, things that we couldn't perceive before as humans.
[00:17:46.613]But it's important back to that point that we talked
[00:17:48.970]to before is that when you combine humans and Artificial
[00:17:53.610]Intelligence, you get the best results.
[00:17:54.830]There's a number of studies out on Xrays.
[00:17:57.140]How does a person look at an Xray
[00:17:58.790]and interpret the results.
[00:18:00.230]When a human does it alone, I'm making up these statistics,
[00:18:03.460]let's call it 10% error rate, when a machine does it,
[00:18:06.320]there's a 5% error rate.
[00:18:07.490]When you put the two together, you end up with like an
[00:18:10.050]almost 0% error rate.
[00:18:12.620]So it's important to think that yes, there will be machines
[00:18:15.500]that will help us augment human capabilities, that can help
[00:18:20.210]us do what we do in a much better way but we won't be
[00:18:22.386]replaced by machines.
[00:18:24.186]That's right.
[00:18:25.180]There will be certain things that get replaced by what
[00:18:29.910]machines can do better than we can do but you always have
[00:18:32.330]to have that person in the mix.
[00:18:34.750]I think that's such an important message for people
[00:18:38.050]to really think about and hear because I do think there's
[00:18:40.230]sort of this alarmist futurist sort of approach to
[00:18:44.650]oh someday we'll be, you know, singularity is gonna happen
[00:18:47.920]and we're all gonna be like a robot or something but I
[00:18:51.540]don't think we're that close to it.
[00:18:53.470](laughing)
[00:18:55.361]I'm not really worried about that right now.
[00:18:57.150]I think it's more so like how does this continue to evolve
[00:19:00.550]and how do we get more people connected and in a way
[00:19:03.950]that helps them really advance their lives, just like
[00:19:06.610]you're talking about.
[00:19:07.970]One of the questions we've been really focused on lately
[00:19:10.770]at the Rural Futures Institute is why rural and why now.
[00:19:14.180]I mean, so many people think it's just a choice to live
[00:19:16.870]in rural, which in many ways it is but there's a lot more
[00:19:19.325]to it than that.
[00:19:20.440]It's really quite complex and you know, the election
[00:19:24.100]brought forward a lot of thoughts and feelings around this
[00:19:27.540]rural urban divide which we'd really see as more
[00:19:30.420]of an opportunity for our continued globalized world
[00:19:34.630]to grow together because in our rural areas we do produce
[00:19:39.470]a lot of the food that is consumed in urban, for example.
[00:19:42.860]We need those wide open green spaces as well
[00:19:45.570]for environmental sustainability so there's a lot of issues
[00:19:48.350]around it but tell use what you think about why rural,
[00:19:51.780]why now and why is Microsoft really thoughtfully trying
[00:19:57.510]to help people get connected?
[00:19:58.950]Well I think why rural, why now, there is so much focus
[00:20:02.120]on it right now.
[00:20:02.953]Grab it while we've got it.
[00:20:04.690]I mean, really it's one of the issues of the time.
[00:20:08.060]We need to do something now while we have a lot
[00:20:10.160]of support behind it.
[00:20:10.993]I mean, a lot of people are investing in rural issues
[00:20:13.470]right now so I think you should absolutely take advantage
[00:20:15.630]of that 2016 election where a lot of those issues were
[00:20:18.670]forefront where we realized there's a significant number
[00:20:21.580]of people living in America who felt
[00:20:22.970]they weren't being heard.
[00:20:24.558]Absolutely.
[00:20:25.391]And so now, we've got a lot of focus.
[00:20:27.690]Let's leverage it while we can, for sure.
[00:20:32.140]I think companies like Microsoft, why do we operate
[00:20:34.400]in those areas, Microsoft has a long, long history
[00:20:37.710]of being local.
[00:20:39.000]We sell around the world in the same way that we think our
[00:20:41.050]technology has to reflect our audience, really our employees
[00:20:44.680]in some ways, very much reflect the world.
[00:20:47.270]Now we haven't always been this invested in rural areas
[00:20:49.772]as we are today.
[00:20:51.720]We've invested in many areas around the world but we've made
[00:20:54.120]a concerted effort in the last few years to really think
[00:20:57.290]about how can we better serve people in rural communities
[00:21:00.350]and it's core to our mission.
[00:21:02.240]Our mission is to empower every person on the planet
[00:21:04.700]to achieve more and that means whether you live in an
[00:21:07.450]urban area or you live in a rural area, we wanna help
[00:21:10.210]you achieve more.
[00:21:11.300]And it's not just about being philanthropic.
[00:21:15.050]This is good for our business.
[00:21:17.290]What I didn't mention before on the diversity topic is
[00:21:20.170]our employees expect this of us.
[00:21:22.880]Our employees demand these kind of things of us.
[00:21:25.043]It's actually good for the stock price.
[00:21:26.690]It absolutely is.
[00:21:27.570]Our employees are our biggest asset and I'm telling you
[00:21:30.570]they are a very passionate bunch of people and so no matter
[00:21:34.820]what happens in the news, you can imagine that my inbox
[00:21:37.433]gets hit with all kinds of ideas and requests for what we
[00:21:42.560]could be doing and so when we think this helps us attract
[00:21:46.230]and retain good people, you think purely from a Microsoft
[00:21:49.810]interest, beyond just our mission, our ability to execute
[00:21:52.804]our mission is dependent on us addressing these issues.
[00:21:56.620]So for a long time we worked in communities around the
[00:21:58.610]world because we've had sales teams and communities around
[00:22:00.930]the world.
[00:22:02.317]In the last couple of years, it's been really a focus.
[00:22:04.530]We have a program called TechSpark.
[00:22:07.510]Yes, tell us about that.
[00:22:09.040]We invested in six communities.
[00:22:10.520]We have put an employee there who is from the community.
[00:22:15.140]So we didn't put them there, we actually hired them
[00:22:16.780]from there and they've stayed there and so they work
[00:22:20.650]with the community to understand what do they need
[00:22:22.020]in the areas of digital transformation, education,
[00:22:25.490]connectivity, all of these different things that we work on
[00:22:29.150]in many, many ways around the world and really making that
[00:22:32.450]super local and understanding what the
[00:22:34.130]local community needs.
[00:22:35.120]We can build these models and think about how we can engage
[00:22:38.230]and we can scale things like that.
[00:22:39.680]Now right now we're focused on six communities.
[00:22:42.200]So everybody always asks the question, "How do you come to
[00:22:43.855]"my community?"
[00:22:44.688]Right, right.
[00:22:45.521]I don't have an answer for that today but what I will say
[00:22:47.640]is that we know that when we invest in a community, we can
[00:22:51.510]make a pretty big difference in that community, much more
[00:22:54.320]than we can in say other areas when we invest in a smaller
[00:22:58.200]community and it's fantastic to see the changes
[00:23:01.030]that can be made there.
[00:23:02.040]I appreciate that local model but with the global
[00:23:04.650]implications and the global connectivity but really,
[00:23:07.502]having somebody in place there that knows that community
[00:23:10.840]is assessing those needs but also it's good for the
[00:23:13.870]community and good for the business and I think that's,
[00:23:16.601]you know as we've gotten to know each other a little bit
[00:23:19.160]more, I so appreciate you bringing that forward.
[00:23:22.960]It's not just about giving.
[00:23:25.050]That's not really what the corporate
[00:23:26.550]responsibility piece is.
[00:23:28.440]It's partly that but it's also about Microsoft doing well
[00:23:32.820]so it's really creating that win-win for the social
[00:23:36.460]responsibility aspect, the environment, the people
[00:23:39.900]but also the company and it makes it a sustainable model
[00:23:42.663]in the long run and a growth model for everybody involved.
[00:23:47.210]I think it takes unique leadership and culture to be able
[00:23:50.920]to do that but I also think it's a model, you've talked
[00:23:53.860]a lot about this, moving forward that more companies
[00:23:56.340]even universities are gonna have to start embracing in a
[00:23:59.380]richer, more dynamic way.
[00:24:01.320]How do we make this a win for everybody involved
[00:24:04.070]and how do you lead that?
[00:24:05.570]What does that look like as a leader?
[00:24:08.090]If you don't make models that are sustainable,
[00:24:10.430]it's a flash in the pan of 2016, 2018 and then it all
[00:24:14.300]kind of goes away.
[00:24:15.410]You have to make sure that you're really thinking about
[00:24:17.320]these things from a long term perspective.
[00:24:19.470]Grabbing the Sitegeist while we've got it and really
[00:24:21.920]making it work from a long term perspective and that's why
[00:24:24.110]we're so focused on actually being really local verus
[00:24:27.121]having such centralized operations.
[00:24:30.540]So Shelley, what would your personal vision be
[00:24:33.770]for this rural urban dynamic and the use of technology
[00:24:38.940]and what would that be for you, like what would you love
[00:24:42.030]to see happen in the next five years?
[00:24:44.180]I would love to see that if people want to stay
[00:24:46.720]in rural communities, they can stay in rural communities
[00:24:48.580]and have good high paying jobs.
[00:24:50.993]There have been a number of communities around
[00:24:52.860]the country that have developed into these sort
[00:24:54.520]of centers for technology people who can work remotely.
[00:24:58.490]That's a great thing.
[00:24:59.930]Absolutely.
[00:25:00.763]And if you can make the diversity of work in different
[00:25:04.520]areas, work from home, work remotely, enable all of that
[00:25:08.710]via this technology, it's actually in some ways quite simple
[00:25:12.410]once you get used to it because it really is just a,
[00:25:17.320]in some ways, just a telecommunications to start with
[00:25:20.740]but people are so used to being in their office
[00:25:22.420]all the time.
[00:25:23.420]So you think oh if I've got a big high paying job
[00:25:25.280]in Omaha, I can't actually do that job from another place
[00:25:27.920]in Nebraska because I have to be in my chair at the office
[00:25:32.100]but if we can really start getting a culture around
[00:25:33.840]people working remotely, taking advantage of technology,
[00:25:37.450]then we can enable people to have good, high paying jobs
[00:25:40.120]and they can live where they want to live and these
[00:25:42.560]communities can flourish.
[00:25:46.690]Some of the products we're doing, I'm really hoping that
[00:25:48.450]we can get to really see some progress in those areas
[00:25:51.830]over the next five years.
[00:25:53.330]I appreciate how you're saying, "Good, high paying jobs."
[00:25:55.740]I mean, it's not something where it's just
[00:25:57.500]barely scraping by.
[00:25:59.001]The vision is bigger than that and the possibilities
[00:26:02.040]are bigger than that.
[00:26:03.270](funky music)
[00:26:05.850]I'd love to know and our listeners would love to know
[00:26:08.630]what are some practical pieces of advice that you could
[00:26:11.350]give them as leaders, as entrepreneurs, as people doing
[00:26:14.890]amazing things in their world.
[00:26:16.860]I think the time is now as we've established.
[00:26:18.960]Really the time is now for a lot of these issues.
[00:26:21.230]Technology, we are really on the brink of this fourth
[00:26:23.610]industrial revolution.
[00:26:24.980]We need to take action now and I think our students are
[00:26:28.050]so great at that.
[00:26:29.532]They have, in some ways, such a blank slate.
[00:26:33.010]No idea is a dumb idea.
[00:26:34.570]Now I think when they get into the workforce, it is a
[00:26:37.360]challenge thinking oh I don't really know anything,
[00:26:40.917]I haven't had years and years of experience but what I find
[00:26:43.140]is when I talk to our youngest members of Microsoft
[00:26:47.130]or people who have started a new career, that's also
[00:26:49.710]another great one, they have such a fresh perspective.
[00:26:52.840]We need that fresh perspective to advance so don't be shy.
[00:26:56.140]Okay but before we wrap up, I have to dive into something
[00:26:59.103]you said there.
[00:27:00.400]You said, "Starting a new career."
[00:27:02.460]So tell me more about that.
[00:27:03.890]Super important and the thing that's really cool is
[00:27:07.790]when I think about what our kids are doing today
[00:27:10.150]and they switch platforms left and right, whereas when
[00:27:12.920]we were in school, if you got a new update to your
[00:27:17.780]Windows, you thought, oh my gosh how am I gonna use this?
[00:27:20.772]Our kids are so flexible now.
[00:27:22.640]Right.
[00:27:24.240]So I'm not as worried about later like our kids being
[00:27:26.810]able to change careers.
[00:27:28.642]We're very natural, right.
[00:27:29.527]People in our generation need to do and we've gotta help
[00:27:33.200]people who are, when you think about technology advancing,
[00:27:36.340]we need to make sure people aren't left behind
[00:27:38.120]and that today really means about people
[00:27:40.580]starting new careers and if you are hiring someone,
[00:27:43.650]be open to someone who has changed careers.
[00:27:47.120]Understand that they've got years of experience behind that,
[00:27:50.200]that could also be something really important for what
[00:27:52.280]you wanna do.
[00:27:53.260]So when you look at a resume of someone who's maybe had a
[00:27:56.470]gap in employment for whatever reason, understand that
[00:28:00.980]they actually have years of experience that they can
[00:28:03.110]bring to bear to start something new.
[00:28:04.320]Be open to those kind of opportunities.
[00:28:06.308]If I did something, if I was a truck driver and I was
[00:28:09.788]replaced by automated vehicles, that person's gonna have
[00:28:13.360]to look for a new job.
[00:28:14.400]They maybe acquired some more skills and so as a hiring
[00:28:17.270]manager, I need to be open to hiring not just the person
[00:28:19.759]who has exactly the right skills and experience but a
[00:28:23.100]person who has a perspective that I don't have today.
[00:28:26.150]One of the things I forgot to say earlier that I had
[00:28:28.090]on my mind and forgot about it was one of the most
[00:28:30.950]important lessons I learned as a manager was from someone
[00:28:35.100]who gave me an anonymous piece of feedback
[00:28:36.650]and we have a tool for it and said you know,
[00:28:40.137]"Shelley is very focused on diversity and all these things
[00:28:43.044]"but she tends to hire people who are just like her
[00:28:46.327]"in terms of extrovert versus introvert."
[00:28:49.000]Oh interesting.
[00:28:49.833]It was an aspect of diversity that I
[00:28:50.800]had not thought about.
[00:28:52.595]I thought, I mean like I love this person, they're so
[00:28:55.480]enthusiastic and they're bubbly and they're amazing
[00:28:57.420]and then I would go for that candidate versus like maybe
[00:28:59.740]someone who's a bit more reserved.
[00:29:01.400]I looked across my leadership team and I thought, wow.
[00:29:05.369]I had one person one time on my leadership team who was
[00:29:08.770]an introvert and I was like, I really hope that he's
[00:29:10.970]the one that gave me that feedback but I thought,
[00:29:13.580]you know what?
[00:29:14.413]He's absolutely right.
[00:29:16.430]I've unintentionally hired people who are like me.
[00:29:19.980]So it's something to be, it was a great learning experience
[00:29:23.040]for me, it's something to be really, really aware of
[00:29:25.390]as you're thinking about the teams you build and you work
[00:29:27.520]with and you're thinking about how the discussions we're
[00:29:30.360]having need to be built and formulated.
[00:29:32.800]Unconscious bias is something we talk about.
[00:29:34.747]It's just how it's been named but everyone has it.
[00:29:38.730]Thank you, Shelley and thank you all for joining us
[00:29:41.180]at the Rural Futures podcast.
[00:29:42.860]Here's to creating your best future.
[00:29:46.420]Thanks for listening to Rural Futures with Dr. Connie.
[00:29:49.570]Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at
[00:29:52.210]Rural Futures and subscribe to make sure
[00:29:54.280]you don't miss an episode.
[00:29:55.950]Next up, we talk higher education for entrepreneurship
[00:29:58.870]with Dr. Tom Field.
[00:30:00.530]Dr. Field is innovating education within the
[00:30:02.940]University of Nebraska, Engler Agribusiness and
[00:30:05.690]Entrepreneurship program.
[00:30:08.023]A new economy will be called the side gig economy
[00:30:10.770]as robotics and Artificial Intelligence and too much
[00:30:15.850]process oftentimes and regulatory environment,
[00:30:18.730]all those things sort of press on people.
[00:30:21.540]What they're gonna do is they're just gonna get creative
[00:30:23.650]and they're gonna do side gigs and if the side gig economy
[00:30:27.430]is where we're going, the institution least prepared
[00:30:30.350]for that is the university.

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Episode 2 | Microsoft General Manager Shelley McKinley

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