Pandemic Reflections

March, 2020.

As the pandemic began, one of the hardest realizations was that we would not be opening our doors to visitors for the foreseeable future. In a typical year, it was not at all unusual for us to host between 3,000 and 4,000 guests per year for tours and workshops. One to three groups per day was not surprising.

And then it all just stopped.

Our wonderful open and collaborative workspace was quiet and nearly empty.
 

Run the Experiment

From those who knew us well, particularly past visitors, I would receive notes asking me how we were doing in this (suddenly) 100% remote world. I asked one friend who wrote me if he would like to take a virtual tour of the virtual Menlo.

“You can do that?” he asked.

“I have no idea.” I replied. “But we are willing to run the experiment with you.”

It worked better than any of us expected and with some simple social media posts, offering the same option for others, we yielded a dramatic number of virtual guests. We began tracking our guests on a virtual map. Within a year we had hosted volumes of visitors once again (virtually) from 47 US States and 77 countries. We extended this experiment by virtualizing most of our popular workshops

The degree of success was surprising to all of us.
 

Emerging Stronger

2020 was a tough year economically, as our revenues tanked by 60%. Our rallying cry became "Thrive Again!" We declared we would do this by trying new things that would make us stronger. We believed that once the economy and the world tipped right side up again, we would be back to thriving. We were right. 2022 was our best year ever (previously that record was held by 2019). Now 2023 has eclipsed 2022, so two best years in a row has us feeling joyful.
 

Return to Office

As we are now mostly back in the office, in-person visitors are also returning. We continue to welcome virtual visitors as many potential guests in years past could not travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan due to time, distance and cost. The virtual option made us more accessible than ever. It made us stronger. Now we offer both virtual and in-person options. Stronger still.

2023 saw over 1,000 visitors both in person and virtual. For tours and workshops.

We look forward to doubling that number in 2024.

We hope that you have an opportunity to visit us and satisfy your own curiosity about what we have learned in the last four years and what lessons from our past we are now relearning.
 

Our visitors have questions, lots of questions.

How did you adjust to work-from-home? How does remote pairing work? Are team members happy about returning to the office? Are you having trouble finding and keeping people? How does your interview process work? How does the team feedback process work? Are your project management artifacts still digital after you came back to the office? What tools do you use? How do Show & Tells work in a remote environment? Has High-tech Anthropology® changed? Are you using AI? What do you miss from the pre-pandemic Menlo?

And many, many more.
 

An Example Right About Now Would Be Helpful

Most of our guests are on their own journey of team, process, and culture transformation. They have read many of the same books we have, attended the same conferences, and thought many similar thoughts: that things can be better, much better.

Yet, what is typically missing is a living breathing example that can be questioned, interrogated and inspected. This is what our tours offer.

We will never suggest or claim that we have found the one true way of working, but we have always been willing to share what is working for us. Our guests then get to decide for themselves whether something that is working for us, could also work for them. When we hear of their progress and success, we get to our core goal:
 

Joy.