5 Elements of Building an Organizational Culture
We are often asked, “How did Zingerman’s build this great group of people? How do you get people to care and have such a good time at work?”
New to Visioning? Read This First
Dear Vision Novice, You’ve made a wise decision to learn how to write a vision. Back in 2006, I attended the Creating a Vision of Greatness 2-day seminar. It has had a profound impact on my life ever since. At the time, of course, I couldn’t have predicted this. In fact, I had doubts. Yes, […]
ZingTrain Celebrates 25 Years!
How to Write a Vision of Success
Before I get too far into this blog post about how to write a vision, it feels appropriate to share a vision of what success looks like for this blog post. Here goes:
A Beloved Third-Generation Ann Arbor Business Writes a Vision of Greatness for Grand Reopening
Ask any Ann Arborite where to find a pair of shoes that are as comfortable as they are stylish, complete with a truly enjoyable shopping experience, and it’s more-than-likely that you’ll be guided to MAST Shoes.
Tips for Strategic Merchandizing
This may seem too simple to even mention, but I’m going to say it anyway:
How to Hire for Positive Bottom-Line Results
Proven Strategies to Build a More Effective Hiring System There may be industries out there where employee turnover isn’t a problem, but retailing certainly isn’t one of them. Finding, hiring and retaining good staff is one of the biggest challenges that retailers face, and many owners and managers get discouraged by how hard it is—regardless […]
How to Lead When You’re Not a Leader
In the Servant Leadership workshops we teach, we often lead in to the content we’ve adapted from Robert Greenleaf by asking the group:
CASE STUDY: Zingerman’s Business Practices Have Gone to the Cats and Dogs!
Why the Best Performers Aren’t Always the Best Trainers
OK. How many of you are willing to admit that you’ve experienced this scenario: You needed someone to train a new hire, automatically chose the person who was the best performer in the job that needed to be trained—and then were disappointed with the results? Unfortunately, it’s likely that we’ve all done that at one time […]
4 Reasons to Consider Open Book Management
Open Book Management was a brand-new concept to me just four months ago. I hopped on the ZingTrain in October 2018 as the next-generation ZingTrain Concierge, a position responsible for coordinating ZingTrain’s on-site seminars and workshops here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In addition to that, I report on, forecast and track ZingTrain’s public sales numbers […]
Making a Great First Impression: If You’re Only Going to Teach Your Employees One Class…
How do you welcome new hires into your organization? Do you hand them a uniform and point them in the general direction of the front counter? Do you have them attend several days of classroom training before they ever talk to a customer? Do they learn about your organization’s history and vision from someone in leadership? Or […]
