Sometimes, small shifts in wording can work wonders. As Governor Gretchen Whitmer said a few months ago, “Words matter.” Which is why I keep coming back to a realization that I had while working on the new pamphlet “Humility: A Humble, Anarchistic Inquiry.” As I shared in the latter half of the pamphlet, I began […]
What if I told you we had an organizational tool that gets better, longer lasting results than the old command-and-control approach? That it helps develop effective leadership skills across all levels of the organization. Encourages humility in everyone. Actively and systemically engages diverse perspectives in meaningful conversation. Cuts down on unpleasant surprise changes that can […]
In Part I and Part II of The Guide to Open Book Management posts, you learned what Open Book Management is and Making Case for Open Book Management. Next up, helping you determine, is Open Book right for your business? In The Guide to Open Book Management, you’ve learned: 1. What is Open Book Management? […]
One of the common pieces of conversation prompted by the pandemic has been that “after this is over, everything is going to be different.” It sounds uplifting… though I’m not sure what people are imagining will have changed. While a crisis (personal or collective) can cause reflection, more often than not, when it’s over, things […]
Here in the middle of the rather mad year of 2020, taking time to talk about Mission Statements might feel a bit . . . frivolous. Why, one might reasonably wonder, spend time on something like that when there are so many other urgent issues at hand? When stress levels are high, why sit down […]
Maria Popova writes, “The history of the world is the history of telling others who and what we are—from tribal markings to national flags to family crests to pronoun-specifying email signatures.” How we choose to tell our stories—and what artifacts we choose to highlight—alters the way we hear our past, experience our present, and create […]
When we ask participants in our 2-day leadership training seminar about their least favorite way to be managed, a common answer we hear is being micromanaged. What is the antidote to micromanagement? Stewardship, which is a type of leadership that we’ve been teaching in our in-person seminars for many years now. As the very smart […]
Can you think of the last time you received an order, either one that was delivered or something you picked up yourself, only to get home and realize the order isn’t right? Something is missing, the quantity isn’t correct, a dietary restriction wasn’t adhered to, the list goes on… It’s frustrating, for sure. It ends […]
When it comes to the new work-from-home world many of us find ourselves in at the moment, let’s take a look at the numbers for a second: An amazing 42% of the U.S. workforce is now working remotely, which is nearly twice the number of folks (22%) still working on-site at their business locations! And this larger […]
The Business Perspective Chart, or the BPC, is one of our very favorite training tools at Zingerman’s. Why do we love it so much? It provides framing and context for how our business operates and why, and it gives us a common language to use when talking about the business. This is especially helpful when […]
Howard Erlich, from whose writings I’ve learned a lot over the years, once offered this insightful advice to organizational leaders: “I think we might issue a slip of paper to all collective members. On it I would write ‘diffuse power’ and ‘empower everyone.’” Last week I wrote about the latter. Here, I’d like to share […]
There’s a musician whose work I like who records under the moniker “honey the witch.” In her piece “when the world ends,” she sings the line, “what a strange time it is to be alive.” That’s an understatement if I ever heard one. But if strengths lead to weaknesses—and weaknesses, in turn, can later courteously […]
