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By Rich, July 28, 2010 2:51 pm

I gave a talk today on creating a culture for innovation. I made a comment during the talk that resonated with a lot of people. During the talk I reflected on a time of great change in my career when I moved my team out of their offices and cubes and into the big open space we called the “Java Factory.”

There was great resistance during this change; however, within 6 months I had successfully changed the paths in the carpet and now the team was far more productive and energized than I could have ever imagined at the beginning. A long time member of my team came to me one day and asked me an important question. He said, “Rich, when you embarked on this program 6 months ago there was no way you knew it was going to work out as well as it did. Why were you willing to take that risk?” He was right. It was an implausible risk for a guy in my position. I had the title. I was a VP. I had the seniority. I’d been there for 16 years. I was well-regarded by both my team and my peers, and yet inside I knew there had to be a better way of doing what we were doing.

After reflecting on his question, I answered, “It was quite simple. I came to a point where I realized that the risk of remaining the same was far greater than the risk of changing.” Once you cross that bridge in your mind, you run towards change and run away from staying the same. Sometimes the risk of staying the same is the far greater risk.

It’s a very powerful moment that not many of us ever get to experience. I was fortunate to be one of the few who did. These last 11 years have gotten me back to where I want to be personally. I’ve gotten back to joy.  I see it every day in this wonderful place we call the Menlo Software Factory™. The energy, the creativity, the imagination, and the innovation are at a level most only dream of. We get to experience it every day.

We’re not perfect, but we typically expose our imperfections more quickly than others and then work on those imperfections. We’re still trying to change the world from our little perch here in in Ann Arbor. The tours we do every day give us a chance to change minds and show people a different approach to organizing teams of people towards a common goal. We want to give permission to everyone who visits to take a moment and think differently about how they do what they do.

If you get a chance, come visit us. We always enjoy the chance to share our passions with others.

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By Rich, July 12, 2010 11:11 am

A question we get almost every tour is, “What is your attrition rate?” It’s a statistic we’ve never thought to track, so our answers are always anecdotal.  I tell them, “Over the years we’ve found that the right people go and the right people stay.” It’s probably a long term version of Jim Collins’ quote, “Get the right people on the bus, get the wrong people off the bus.”

Interestingly, we don’t achieve this by regularly firing people. We create a system that allows both new people and the existing team to evaluate each other and decide whether the fit is good.

I often find that the companies that pride themselves on a low attrition rate confide an insidious complaint, “Yeah, we can’t fire people here.” They go on to lament that there are “individual heroes” on their team who have been there for years, who have become obstacles to progress, and who stopped being “part of the team” years ago. They can’t be fired because they possess some special knowledge that the organization perceives as irreplaceable. Management fears them, staff avoids them. They become an island unto themselves.

Ironically this is more harmful to the person who isn’t being fired as their career is hurdling down a blind alley. They are working themselves slowly into an unemployable state.

At Menlo we work very hard to avoid these “Towers of Knowledge.” Because people come and people go, we strive to make Menlo a bird cage without bars. We make no artificial attempt to hold on to anyone. We wish them well when they choose to leave and we embrace them should they ever choose to come back. I think the difference is we strive to handle this aspect of our work culture with dignity. We are not always perfect at it, but we try to get better each time.

I was approached a couple of years ago by one of my team members who told me she was leaving to take another position. She was a bit teary-eyed while delivering this news. I asked her why she was leaving to go to one of the Detroit Three, and she told me, “I want to have some ‘big company’ experience on my resume.” I thought that sounded like a great reason and offered my encouragement. Her emotional plea to me was, “It’s only a 9 month contract. Can I come back when it’s over?” I said, “Absolutely! You know we love you here. When does your contract end? Call us two weeks before and we’ll try to get you back on the schedule then.”

She lasted four months before she called. “They’re not human here!” We had her back on the schedule the following week.

Her story of leaving this other job was fascinating. As soon as she announced she was leaving, security guards showed up with boxes and escorted her from the building. She never got to say goodbye to her co-workers.

I can’t understand why employers behave this way.

She was back here for two years before she left again for a higher paying position. Her needs this time were different.  Again, the reasons were rational and understandable. She continues to come back to visit for lunch & learns and other social engagements with the team. I anticipate she may join us again in the future, and we would embrace the opportunity.

So you tell me, what is our attrition rate?

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By Rich, June 28, 2010 2:19 pm

Today we had the pleasure of hosting 20 fourth graders from Ms. Stephen’s class at Cornerstone School (Nevada Campus). My, what important lessons we can learn from ten year olds!

We host a lot of tour groups here, mostly adults, mostly people in the work world. Every once in a while we host classes from elementary, middle, and high school. It’s such a blast to see the bright eyes, the curiosity, and the excitement of kids for whom the world is still a place of wondrous mystery. They always have such great questions.

My favorite question today was, “What is Menlo Innovations doing to help the State of Michigan?” In the 9 years of tours I’ve hosted, I’ve never had a more important or probing question. It generated a tremendous amount of discussion. I talked about hiring people, how that has helped them do things like buy homes, take care of their health, take vacations, buy cars, and generally become their own version of the economic stimulus package. I also talked about how the success we help our customers create means they can also hire people to do all of the above. What a great question!

I find these kinds of visits to be incredibly uplifting because I see the future in the eyes of these children. They’re still excited, they still have energy. Too often the adults who come to visit have lost that edge. I’m always proud when I get people re-energized about their career or their work life, but I always find myself wishing that more people could get to experience the joy that we have every day.

I asked the kids whether they wanted to work here some day.  All their hands went high in the air. One asked “How old do you have to be?”  When I said 18, you could hear their collective sigh for the eight years they have to wait.  I think they would start tomorrow if they could.  One asked if we had “internships!”  What 4th grader is already thinking about internships?!?  These kids from Cornerstone are special and delightful.

Fourth graders excited about work.  Fourth graders wanting to know about internships and when they can start working.  Fourth graders who want to know how I am helping the State of Michigan.  Fourth graders who knew that the word that describes the difference between checks we cash and checks we write is called profit! Fourth graders who knew that profit helps us pay for things and helps make the world a better place.

I hope I am smarter than a fourth grader every now and then!  The fourth graders from Cornerstone have set the bar pretty high for that to be true.  Thanks President Sanders, Mr. Bologna, and Ms. Stephens.  Thanks Cornerstone fourth graders!  You made my day!

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By Rich, June 21, 2010 10:36 am

I often hear the phrase, “We hire the best and brightest.” It leaves me wondering who hires the “worst and dimmest.”

In order to experience real success every team needs to determine how they can achieve extraordinary results with ordinary people. When I teach our Agile Explained class, I reference the six focus areas of Six Sigma. These include Environment, Measurement Systems, Methods, Materials, Machines, and People. My belief is most management teams first look at the people as the key to solving their most pressing problems.  “If we only had better people things wouldn’t be this bad.”

Don’t believe it. We have good people in our industry. The people in our industry are smart, dedicated, educated, and diligent. It’s not about the people.

When the Standish Group measures our industry and catalogs the top reasons software projects fail, competent staff often falls toward the bottom of that list. This resonates with me.  In fact, the Standish Group suggests that replacing your staff with even more competent people might only move your Successmeter by 5%.  Why? Because we already have competent staff on our teams. It’s not about the people.

One of the most intriguing stories I’ve heard along these lines is the story of the NUMMI Plant in Freemont, California, a joint-venture between Toyota and General Motors. Anyone who is interested in the effect of process on results should listen to this NPR story. This story outlines how in the 1980s the worst performing plant in GM history became the best performing plant.  Same people. Same machines. Same plant. Different methods and different measurement systems made all the difference.

We see the same effects here at Menlo. We often refer to ourselves as a refugee camp from an industry gone very very bad.  We are able to take members of  teams performing below industry standards and quickly assimilate them into our team. Their enthusiasm, energy, motivation, and productivity immediately rise. Same people, different process.

It’s not about the people. As you consider how you might make things better at your company, don’t start by looking at the people. Start by looking at yourself and then look at your process. The payoffs aren’t just in higher productivity and better quality, but also in a better life for you and your team.

We believe it is possible to have joy in software design and development. We hope the same for you.

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By Rich, June 18, 2010 10:25 am

I attended the Agile Roots conference in Salt Lake City earlier this week. It had a feeling of returning to an ancestral homeland. While I wasn’t part of the original Snowbird gathering in 2000, I am thankful to the group that gathered there to change our industry.

A tweet after my talk there said, “Impressed by @menloinnovation’s successful long-term record as an XP [Extreme Programming] contract programming shop…”

Yes, we are agile. Yes, we use Extreme Programming. However, neither of those are goals of the organization. They are tools to pursue a dream.

We believe that software design and development should be a joyful activity. For a good portion of my career it wasn’t. It got to the point for me that I either had to change or leave. I chose change.

The group that gathered at Snowbird in 2000 gave me the path to change. Thank you.

The tools of agile, Extreme Programming, Alan Cooper, Lean, Six Sigma, RUP, and PMBOK were simply means to an end. What I desired was joy, energy, creativity, imagination, quality, collaboration, work-life balance and enthusiasm, each and every day. Those tools gave me those things.

I was honored to be able to share those successes and passions with the gathering at Agile Roots. I have had the great fortune of experiencing that joy for the last 11 years. I hope in some way the talks from me, James, and Kealy and Ted will inspire others to chase a similar mission.

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By Lisamarie, June 15, 2010 11:39 am

Last month I was fortunate enough to participate on a panel with Doug Ruch (President of the Fleetwood Group), and Gaye van den Homebergh (President of Winning Workplaces) for the Scanlon Leadership Network. Gaye lead the session while Doug and I sat on the stage, each waiting our turn to share some stories about our unique company cultures. Gaye’s last question was, “What one thing should other companies focus on to build great cultures?”

Without hesitation I answered, “Trust. You have to have trust or nothing else works.”

Then Gaye momentarily stumped me: “And how should they do that?”

Wow. I hadn’t really thought about that. I said something about honoring the relationships you build and commitments you make. Honestly, I can’t remember exactly what I said.

When I was driving home, I had the opportunity to reflect on the question further. The simple truth is that I’m very fortunate to work in a culture that is rich in trust. I’ve been at Menlo long enough (7+ years) that I’ve started to forget what life was like before I came here.

I’m spoiled.

Fortunately I had a long drive home so I was able to think through the subject in more detail. The more I thought about it, the more I knew the truth: Menlo’s culture works because we work on it.

We’ve spent countless hours on lunch & learns, working to improve our communication skills. We work closely together, all day every day — there just isn’t room for backstabbing or gossip. We encourage open, productive conflict. We re-enforce (through our behavior) that this is a safe environment to make mistakes, to experiment.. The team makes commitments to one another and to our clients, and we work very hard to honor those commitments.

One of the books we give away to visitors seeking to understand our culture (more than 50 copies so far) is Patrick Lencioni’s “leadership fable”, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. The opening line of the book is particularly impactful:  “Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork alone that is the ultimate competitive advantage both because it is so powerful and so rare.”

Indeed.

Anyone trying to build a great team really needs to understand the pyramid he describes of trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results.

It’s a quick read. If you haven’t read it already, pick it up before your next plane trip. Or better yet, visit Menlo and we’ll probably give you a copy.

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By Lisamarie, June 7, 2010 6:00 am

We’ve talked about Extreme Interviewing several times now, but we’ve never really had the perspective from the other side of the table.

The following was written by Bill Heitzeg, a participant in Wednesday’s Extreme Interviewing event. It was originally posted on his blog. We have reposted it here with his permission.

Those folks at Menlo are weird.  No question about it.  Yesterday I went for my fifth visit to Menlo, but yesterday was different, yesterday I went to Menlo in an attempt to join their team.  Previously I had just been curious, trying to understand why Menlo was successful at Agile when so many others had failed, including myself.  The people at Menlo are incredibly generous with their time, so over and over again I was able to attend a variety of events, see Menlo in action, and learn about what makes them different.  Somewhere between my 3rd and 4th visit I realized that I really wanted the chance to work at Menlo.  So they set it up!  They invited me to participate in their Extreme Interview process, the first step to joining the Menlo team.

I was incredibly nervous, I can’t remember an interview that made me so nervous.  I guess I really wanted to succeed more than I realized.  When I arrived, each of the four tables was full of candidates.  There where 16 in all, but other than myself and one other person, the others were Mock candidates, part of a program called Shifting Gears.  The Shifting Gears folks were there to improve their interviewing skills by experiencing a completely different kind of interview, the Menlo Extreme Interview.  It kind of blew me away.  I mean, the interview and subsequent dinner (provided by Menlo) and discussion were well over 3 hours, with 9 Menlo personnel, with really no gain to Menlo at all.

I sat down in an empty seat and immediately all three of the Shifting Gears people at the table started talking with me; “Who was I?”, “What did I do?”, “Did I live around here”, “What was Menlo all about?”.  Boy did that help with my nervousness.  I had a supportive, friendly, and cohesive group that I would be interviewing with.

Per instructions, I had read the Menlo white paper on Extreme Interviewing and two Menlo blogs that also discussed the process.  In my opinion, the goal was to show how well you paired with some one else in a problem solving exercise.  I was nervous.  I really didn’t know how I would do.  I’m used to working by myself and pretty much doing everything on my own.  I had rejected pairing many years ago and it was only in the last few years that I had really started approaching it again.

We were given a brief tour of the Menlo factory, all I wanted was to get started, but I tried to stay calm and not worry too much.  I even enjoyed what was now my fifth tour.  After the tour, the same instructions that the blogs and the white paper had given, were given again.  “Make your partner look good” was repeated several times.  We were to perform three exercises, each twenty minutes in length.  For each exercise we would be paired with one other person who we would sit next to.   Across the table would be an observer.  We should ignore the observer unless we had questions about the specific exercise.  For each exercise we would have a different observer and a different partner.  We would have one pen between the two of us.  “Share the pen” was strongly impressed upon us.

So it began.  Randomly assigned a partner and an observer, I sat down at the number 8 spot.  The instructions for the exercise had been given verbally before we started and they were also printed at the top of the exercise sheet.  My partner and I introduced ourselves and we sat down to read the instructions, silently to ourselves.  It was too quiet and I was so nervous I couldn’t remember the verbal instructions, nor for some reason could I actually comprehend the words I was reading.  I believe the silence stretched on for days, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t comprehend the instructions.  I was certainly panicking, but then my partner rescued me.  He started asking me questions.  I couldn’t answer his questions, because I couldn’t really remember my own name at that point, but the more he tried, the more I realized that I knew this stuff!  The exercise involved us identifying, from a large pool of “Stake Holders”, five stakeholders that we would want to interview to better understand how to design a particular software application.  The application was an electronic form of the Menlo paper process, similar to Version One or Agile Zen.  All we really had to do was to identify good potential users of those products and we were done.  It all finally snapped into place, but now all I wanted to do was grab the pen and start circling the right people to interview.  I made a grab at it, but again, my partner saved me.  He didn’t understand at all what needed to be done.  I knew that if I left him behind, I would have failed completely. Realistically if it hadn’t been for him, I never would have snapped out of my panic, I certainly couldn’t let him feel stupid after he had saved me.  He was a finance and accounting person, he had absolutely no idea about planning tools, but he did know Microsoft Office, so we used Excel to try to clear things up.  As 15 minutes went to 10 minutes to 5 minutes we worked through the kind of metaphors that would help us to jointly understand who would be the right people for us to interview.  Lucky for us, the Menlo board was right behind us so we could talk about the product itself in a visual manner.  As the last few seconds ticked by, we were able to complete the first part of the exercise, together as a team.  We of course never made it to the second part, which was to come up with interview questions, but as far as I was concerned, it was a great success and my brain was finally working again.

At the beginning of the second exercise, I was assigned the same observer.  Our instructions were to stay standing if we had the same observer or the same partner.  My observer handled it all very quickly and as I was in a pretty happy state, this didn’t throw me at all.  My second partner was an engineer and although English wasn’t his first language, he was easy to understand and was very serious about solving the problem before us.  We were presented with a number of story cards and instructed to prepare three iterations from the story cards.  My partner was a fast reader and quick to make up his mind.  I was worried a bit that I was letting him lead too much, so I started using simple interrupt patterns and questioning strategies (thank you Sandler) to get him thinking a bit more about the choices he was making.  He was also holding the pen, but the exercise was such that we either needed to share the pen or we needed two pens.  Luckily for us, there was a second pen on the table (not sure how that happened).  I reached for it, but my partner was quicker.  He said something like “Oh, we shouldn’t do that”.  He then looked at the pen in his hand and handed it over.  It was a breakthrough moment.  We were partners from that point on, quickly and methodically working through each story card.  We were so quick that we even had time at the end to re-arrange our iterations and perfect them a bit.

The third exercise was just fun, my nervousness was gone and I was assigned a fantastic partner.  My partner was a sales person and as so often it turns out, they are some of the easiest to get along with.  We were instructed to create Unit Tests within a set of scenarios.  I only had one strange moment here where I just started writing after saying what I thought the answer was.  Luckily my partner was very engaged and as I had done with my second partner, he slowed me down and got me to talk about the answers before I just pushed on. We laughed about our answers and even pulled out an iPhone to help us figure out one of the tougher problems.   I felt completely comfortable and was actually a little disappointed when the exercise ended.

Typically, after the three exercises, we would all go home, but Menlo was trying something different.  This time, we would all be given our feedback from the observers live, in front of the whole group.  I was both happy and extremely worried about this.  Worse, they made us eat dinner first!  I couldn’t believe they were going to drag this out.  I had a bit of dinner and passed the time talking with my second partner and a few of his colleagues.

The feedback step turned out to be very interesting and it’s the only time during the whole event that I remembered why I had started this whole quest in the first place; to learn why Menlo was so successful at applying Agile.  I started taking notes.  They worked through each one of us, one at a time, randomly chosen.  Each observer spent about one minute giving feedback.  I was blown away as to how many people had hogged the pen and how many hadn’t really been able to work together, let alone make their partners look good.  I had been much luckier with my partners, than I had realized.  On a personal level, I was very engaged when any one of my partners received feedback.  Two were evaluated before me, so I received a lot of clues as to how I did through their evaluations.  Obviously, when it was my turn I was all ears.  I seemed to have done pretty well.  I had one tough moment when being given my evaluation from the first observer.  She observed something I didn’t agree with.  Even with a roomful of people, it was all I could do to not argue with her.  After that, I kept a close eye on others for similar reactions.  Not one single person argued with their observers although I could tell many times that they didn’t agree and would have liked to.  I imagine a few might have stayed behind for just that purpose.  Resisting this urge in my opinion was absolutely the right choice, especially since this was a very tough thing for the Menlo team to do in such a public manner.  All in all, the feedback step was done very well and the things I heard, including what the first observer said, will be useful to me in the future.

Although a bit of a harrowing experience for me, I absolutely think this is the right way to interview.  It takes into account some of the tenants of Structured Interviewing, reducing personal bias and insuring a sense of consistency.  In addition, the idea of pairing gets to the heart of the Menlo culture, which is team work.

Gosh, I really hope I get called back for the second interview…

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By Lisamarie, June 3, 2010 10:03 am

There is simply no more perfect way to start the day than with a fresh Washtenaw Dairy donut and a cup of coffee, particularly when you’re feeling a little bleary-eyed.

Today I feel a little bleary-eyed.

Last night we conducted a mock Extreme Interview for the Shifting Gears cohort from Oakland County. This is the fourth time we’ve worked with the Shifting Gears program and it’s always a powerful experience.

If you haven’t heard about Shifting Gears, you should.

The purpose of “Shifting Gears” is to increase the success of individuals who want to leverage their career experiences and education to help small businesses grow. This program seeks highly skilled and talented professionals who want to increase their effectiveness and capabilities in the competitive environments of small businesses. Effective adaptation of knowledge and experience from established professionals depend on transforming their careers to adapt effectively to dynamic, innovative firms.

People like those in Shifting Gears are going to be the ones that help transform Michigan.

We’ve talked about Extreme Interviewing before. Three exercises. Three different pair partners. Interviewees are sent home while facilitators meet to discuss what they’ve seen and determine who should be invited back for a second interview. You know the drill.

When we do this for the Shifting Gears folks, there’s an important change: the interviewees don’t leave. The facilitators deliver feedback directly to the interviewee they’ve observed. Our goal is to give each person an example of something they’re doing well and one example of something they need to work on. Because there are three different exercises with three different pair partners and three different facilitators, they’ll hear three things they’re doing well and three things they need to work on.

Delivering feedback in a way that is both honest and respectful is vital for this to work. Delivering feedback in a way that is both honest and respectful is hard. It takes practice. We’re thankful that Shifting Gears gives us the opportunity to practice.

Oh yeah, and we’re thankful for the donuts, too.

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By Ted, May 27, 2010 6:00 am

One day I had a crazy idea, to ride my kayak home from work down the Huron river. It started when Menlo Innovations joined the GetDowntown.org Commuter Challenge. I started to ride my bike to work and log my commute on the commuter challenge website. They have many alternative forms of transportation: skateboard, train, bus, bike, roller skate, etc. The problem is that they forgot one: kayak. Since I live near Gallup Park and Menlo is in the Kerrytown building, most of my bike ride is through Gallup park and along the Huron river. One day, while riding my bike home, I thought about how I could take my kayak home. And get kayak added as an option to the Commuter challenge web site. <hint> <hint>

One thing that working at Menlo has taught me is that two heads are better than one. Which means that I needed a paired commuting partner. The only other person at Menlo who lives downstream is James Goebel. He agreed to pair with me and that commuting home via the Huron river would be a fun way to participate in the Commuter challenge. The plan was to go from the Broadway bridge downstream through Gallup park to the Dixboro dam. I invited four others to join our little trip: Gabriel, Lars, Dan and Chris. Since James and I are the only ones who actually live in Ypsilanti, we would be the ones to log our commute. The rest came along for fun and because they thought we were crazy.

The plan was to leave James’ car at the Dixboro dam and carpool to work with the boats on top of my car. Then we would paddle down the river and pick up car, pack up the boats, and head home for dinner.

Thursday, May 20th, was a glorious day, sunny and warm.  We all arrived at the Broadway bridge after work  and we were on our way downstream by 6:15.

We had an awesome commute. We saw three other groups of kayakers on the river that evening. The Huron was  a very popular place. We also saw, geese, ducks, swans, and spawning fish.  It took us about 1.5 hours to make it all the way down to the dam, which is an hour longer than my normal commute but I didn’t mind. The river kept us moving so we didn’t have to work too hard.  The best part was sitting in my kayak, just relaxing not thinking about anything. Feeling the warm sunshine and listening to the sound of the river.

I doubt I’ll commute via the river next week, or even next month, it’s much easier to ride my bike. A big thanks to the GetDowntown.org folk who organize the commuter challenge, they were the inspiration. And a big thanks to Menlo for letting us leave a little early on Thursday.

NOTE: For more pictures of the Menlo Fleet’s commute, visit Ted’s Picassa site!

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By Rich, May 24, 2010 12:03 pm

Many of Menlo’s projects are “start from scratch” greenfield development.  However, some potential clients approach us about enhancing an existing piece of software.  They wonder whether we can work with code our team hasn’t authored.

Early on in this discussion there are two fundamental questions to consider:

Will we know if we broke your existing application?

Will you know if we broke your existing application?

Without straight-forwarded ways to answer these questions, these type of projects can quickly become intractable.   This challenge is not new to agile software development, but an agile approach can expose this problem sooner than other approaches.

There has never been the software equivalent of “national building codes.” There can be no standard expectations when working with a piece of code you didn’t write yourself. This begs the question “How can a team write code that can be maintained by others?”

I often jokingly ask tour visitors, in particular programmers, “How many of you write maintainable code?” Almost everyone raises their hand, some half-heartedly. I then ask them, “How many of you have co-workers who write maintainable code?” Almost none of them raise their hands. That’s when the nervous laughter starts, since many tours include their co-workers.

So what practices can help a team write maintainable code? Some of the practices that have worked for us include automated unit testing frameworks, test driven design, code stewardship, pair programming, continuous integration, and code that is so readable that it doesn’t require comments.

It’s usually at this point that our potential clients are beginning to feel a foreboding as they begin wishing their software was written in a different manner.  “This Old Software” projects can be slow and expensive as you get a new team up-to-speed where they can confidently make changes without fear of breaking something undetectable.

When Menlo takes on these types of projects we look for ways to “firewall” our efforts by writing unit tests around the subsection of code we are making changes to. This gives us a chance to answer the above questions.

Not all software sucks and there can be good answers to the above questions for existing software. It’s one of the reasons we’re so excited to share our approach with others.

We take our mission of “ending human suffering in the world as it relates to technology™” quite seriously. We are spending more time these days interacting with universities and colleges in an attempt to foster new teaching at the beginning of careers in the hope of making a difference in the world. We hope, in some small way, our blog, our books, our classes, our tours, and our enthusiasm might be making a difference in your world too.