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i refuse to be enraged by opinion pieces no matter how many times they are re-tweeted here. I am enraged enough by news.
Frank X. Shaw
Verified account Microsoft@fxshaw
lead communications for Microsoft.
linkedin.com/in/fxshaw/
linkedin.com/in/fxshaw/
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That was a lot of fun!
Microsoft’s longtime comms chief @fxshaw, who's leaving at the end of the year, joins @maryjofoley and me to reflect on working with Microsoft's three CEOs, lessons learned over the years, and how communications and media are changing in the AI era. geekwire.com/2026/exit-inte…View quoted post on X
I'm continuing to work through my archive of the TGIFs i've published internally over the years. Trust is a common theme. Back in TGIF #289 (end of july 2020) I wrote:
"A consistent theme for these mails over the last set of years has been about truth, and trust, and facts. How trust is critical for Microsoft, and really for any institution. If you have trust, work to keep it. If you have lost trust, work to restore it. If you are a media outlet, protect your credibility. If you have expertise, showcase that expertise, put it to good use, don’t loan your expertise to others who will use it against you."
The rest of the TGIF captures the moment, but also THIS moment as well, as somethings have gotten even worse, from a trust/truth standpoint. I closed this one by reflecting on what I learned as a public affairs officer in the USMC:
"Years ago, as a young public affairs officer in the Marines, I was told, over and over, that while we worked for the Marines, we were accountable to the American public. Our jobs were to navigate the tension that this could cause in a way that consistently allowed us (and thus the Marines) to be trusted by all the stakeholders we had – our local community, the family members of Marines, government officials, other branches of the service. A big part of this accountability lies in realizing we all had a responsibility to build or maintain or restore trust in this institution that we loved and served, and by so doing, serve the great good."
We can build trust, we can trade it away, for each of us as individuals or the institutions we support. For those who would make that trade, I think about the lyric in Jeffrey Foucault's "Ghost Repeater:" "It's a buyers market/When you sell your soul" and pair this with Matthew 16:26: “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?"
fxshaw.com/tgif-289-what-…
fxshaw.com TGIF #289: What Is Truth - Frank X. Shaw: Things I'm Thinking About This week my media consumption seemed filled with facts – new Covid-19 numbers, economic numbers, unemployment numbers, earnings reports from titans of the tech industry, congressional testimony from... "A consistent theme for these mails over the last set of years has been about truth, and trust, and facts. How trust is critical for Microsoft, and really for any institution. If you have trust, work to keep it. If you have lost trust, work to restore it. If you are a media outlet, protect your credibility. If you have expertise, showcase that expertise, put it to good use, don’t loan your expertise to others who will use it against you."
The rest of the TGIF captures the moment, but also THIS moment as well, as somethings have gotten even worse, from a trust/truth standpoint. I closed this one by reflecting on what I learned as a public affairs officer in the USMC:
"Years ago, as a young public affairs officer in the Marines, I was told, over and over, that while we worked for the Marines, we were accountable to the American public. Our jobs were to navigate the tension that this could cause in a way that consistently allowed us (and thus the Marines) to be trusted by all the stakeholders we had – our local community, the family members of Marines, government officials, other branches of the service. A big part of this accountability lies in realizing we all had a responsibility to build or maintain or restore trust in this institution that we loved and served, and by so doing, serve the great good."
We can build trust, we can trade it away, for each of us as individuals or the institutions we support. For those who would make that trade, I think about the lyric in Jeffrey Foucault's "Ghost Repeater:" "It's a buyers market/When you sell your soul" and pair this with Matthew 16:26: “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?"
fxshaw.com/tgif-289-what-…
As I slowly wrap up my time as chief communications officer at Microsoft, I'm reflecting on some of the things I've learned and experienced over the years, and publishing them on my personal website. Today, it was about mistakes. fxshaw.com/tgif-573-makin…
fxshaw.com TGIF #573: Making Mistakes - Frank X. Shaw: Things I'm Thinking About My daddy used to tell me there was no lesson learned in the second kick of a mule, but I am starting to wonder about this. At the time, I internalized this as “don’t make the same mistake twice”... That was the worst PI call ever