When Doug Dawson’s team met for the first time in person at Microsoft headquarters after two years of remote work, he said, they had to set aside “about 15 minutes just for hugging.”
“We really felt that lapse in community,” said Dawson, head of global communications at Microsoft, in a conversation with the USC community on Wednesday.
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Dean Willow Bay, who tried to bring Dawson for a talk more than two years ago prior to the start of the pandemic, engaged in a back and forth with him on varying topics, including the return to work.
Dawson, who went back to work at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, made mention of the international team he works in communications.
During his talk, Dawson stressed that the Microsoft team doesn’t stop with those in attendance at Annenberg, as teammates from Shanghai to France to Ukraine are dealing with different levels of COVID-19 restrictions and other global challenges.
Dawson, too, has spent a fair amount of time working outside the U.S.
A graduate of the University of Manitoba in Canada with a degree in history, Dawson bounced around as an account executive at several firms before a 13-year stint at Nokia Canada. Dawson, working for Nokia in Finland, also picked up his first job for Microsoft in Espoo, later transitioning to the Washington headquarters.
During his previous tenure at Nokia Canada, Dawson, as the only public relations executive, said he would frequently “fly by the seat of his pants.”
Now with a team around him at Microsoft, Dawson, throughout his talk, brought up a recurring sense of building community. The global communications team –– which Dawson leads –– is staggered across the world, calling the structure “nuanced” while saying “the best part of being part of the communications team is that you have brothers and sisters who knew exactly what it is that you do for a living.”
Dawson, who has been with Microsoft since mid-2014, chatted with about 40 students, staff and faculty in Wallis Annenberg Hall. The discussion, moderated by Bay, also included an audience Q&A session.
Looking back on his career, Dawson cited opportunities where he had the “curiosity to try” as the ones that had the most resounding effect.
“The best assignments I’ve ever had are the ones I just put my hands up for,” Dawson said in an interview after the event with Annenberg Media. “When I look back on my career, some of the career highlights I’ve had, it’s always the ones I just threw my hand up. Sometimes ignorance is a wonderful, wonderful skill.”