“We pride ourselves on the level of service we provide to our customers.” Most, if not all, companies will say something along these lines with regard to the value they place on giving great service to their customers. They’ll mention a focus on customer service in job interviews, on their website, or maybe even on […]
One of the most common themes of the last six months is how different things are going to be after the pandemic. I keep hearing how we need new thinking to get out of the current situation. But the interesting thing to me is that there’s more than enough insightful old thinking already out there to help […]
Back when I began the work on this project a couple years ago, I can honestly say that I knew next to nothing about humility. Beyond a general understanding of what the word meant, and that it was probably a good thing to have, I wouldn’t have had much to say about why it would […]
As I write, we’re in the process of putting the final touches on the first-ever “Zingerman’s Statement of Beliefs.” We’re working on getting them printed so we can give copies to our staff, and so those of you who want to can buy one as well. I’ll write more about why I believe the “Statement […]
In Part II of our Guide to Open Book Management (you can read Part I to explore what Open Book is and where it came from here!), we invite you to consider why your business might want to consider Open Book Management (OBM) as a way to run the business. You’ll soon see that there’s […]
Explore how the gentle art of humility can bring out our humanness, elevate organizational effectiveness, enhance leadership, and enrich quality of life. Zingerman’s Founding Partner and CEO, Ari Weinzweig, distills his key learnings from a two-year-long inquiry into humility in his latest pamphlet, Humility: A Humble, Anarchistic Inquiry. Humility, Ari suggests, is subtle, but significant. […]
Malcolm Gladwell said, “Once you don’t start at the beginning, your life just gets so much easier.” Why not, then, use the end as the beginning? It’s an oft-used tactic for writers and filmmakers, so why not try it in our lives? When we know how the story winds up, we will most likely alter […]
The security of the familiar in our lives has quickly been overpowered by uncertainty and concerns around safety, rendering many of the ways we regularly do business either much more difficult or, sometimes, even prohibited altogether. Perhaps you experienced a few, if not all of these shifts: adapting work schedules to accommodate new needs at […]
Think for a moment about your company’s mission statement, vision of success, and core values. Do you have a clear idea of each? If not, not to worry – many, if not most, successful businesses have been doing just fine without formally defining them. But there can be tremendous value in taking the time to […]
Breathe.That’s most certainly a suggestion, not an order. If you’re game, go for it again. Breathe. Many mornings, I write that word when I’m journaling. Sometimes I might write it every few lines as I’m getting going. Each time I write it, I take a deep, slow breath (as I did just now). Mindful breathing won’t fix […]
There have been a lot of mentions in the news of late about badly behaved anarchists, sinisterly dressed in black, throwing rocks and causing riots. I usually just ignore stuff like this in the news—it’s just old biases continuing to be bandied about as they have since Emma Goldman started public speaking. The other day […]
Like any living, breathing organism, your organization grows and evolves in stages. What once worked for the business as things were getting off the ground may become less effective or no longer work as it grows and matures. We’ve seen this first-hand at ZingTrain. We began as a one-woman startup in Founder Maggie Bayless’s attic and […]
