Thirty years ago this summer I moved to Ann Arbor, got a job in a local restaurant, and met Ari and Paul. Fifteen years ago, Ari, Paul and I started ZingTrain. It seems hard to believe that we’ve been in business together for half the time I’ve known them! Instead of going on about how that makes me feel old, I’d rather think about what we’ve accomplished together. And one of the things that immediately comes to mind is Bottom-Line Training®.

When we founded ZingTrain in 1994, one of the first things we did was to document a vision for training at Zingerman’s. Back then we didn’t use the term “vision” as frequently—and certainly not with the same clarity of definition—as we do today. But we agreed upon several important things:

• We believed very strongly in the importance of training (it was already a documented value, as Zingerman’s Guiding Principle #7 – A Place to Learn);
• As an organization we were doing some things well when it came to training (in particular, having Ari or Paul teach an orientation class for all new hires and offering a class on customer service);
• There were lots of things we could do much better;
• We didn’t want to create a training bureaucracy.

Eventually we realized that there were 5 key benefits we were looking for from training. These benefits form the heart of what we now call our Bottom-Line Training® Vision:

1. An approach that is simple and quick to implement. Lengthy planning and design can kill a training initiative—and prevent anything from being implemented.
2. The ability to focus on problem areas as they come up and are identified, rather than having to wait until the next “revision” of the training materials.
3. An emphasis on information that staff need to know/be able to do in order to be successful in their jobs, which is not always the same as what trainers are most excited about teaching.
4. Tools that reduce—not increase—leadership’s burden. Our managers have a lot on their plates. A good training program makes their lives easier, not more complicated.
5. Positive impacts on one or more of our three bottom lines: food quality, service quality and financial results. If our training isn’t having a positive bottom-line impact, then we need to improve the way we’re doing the training or change what we’re training on. Zingerman’s—unlike the University of Michigan, with whom we share our hometown—doesn’t exist just to educate/train people.

Zingerman’s Training Compact and Zingerman’s 4 Training Plan Questions are the foundations upon which Bottom-Line Training® is built. And getting the answers to those questions documented in Training Passports has been a key to successfully sharing the responsibility between trainers and trainees.

Although by no means perfect, the training infrastructure that we have in place has played a key role in the success of the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, which has grown from an organization of 4 businesses, 130 staff and $7.5 million in annual revenues in 1994 to an organization of 8 businesses, 500+ staff and about $35 million in annual revenue. Oh yes, and our bottom lines have improved as well!

While many organizations have decreased their training expenditures in response to the economic downtown, business experts write that “a downturn can present a perfect downtime to enhance the skills your people really need to excel.” (Harvard Business Review.) Join us October 26-27 for ZingTrain’s next Bottom-Line Training® seminar and give your staff the tools they need to excel! Details at www.zingtrain.com.

PS: You say you’ve already sent everyone in your own business to a ZingTrain seminar? Well, then help your friends and colleagues (as well as yourself!) We’ll pay you a $50 finder’s fee for anyone you refer who then join us in a ZingTrain seminar. Email or call Elnian Gilbert 
(egilbertzingermanscom or 734-930-1919) with those names today!