Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture

How the Spirit of Generosity Can Help Renew Our Organizational Ecosystem

In “Working Through Hard Times,” the Introduction is an essay I wrote back at the beginning of the pandemic, called “Things Fall Apart.” As we approach the one year mark of the arrival of COVID-19, I’m imagining the inverse. Sometimes things come together, often with an unexpected elegance. My belief is that by gently and consistently calling forward […]

Organizational Culture

Shifting a Culture “from V to A”

In the spirit of picking up the phone that I wrote about in “Working Through Hard Times,” I dialed the number of a friend the other evening. She’s an amazing leader who lives halfway across the country. Someone who is humble, focused, and persistently positive in her leadership. She has vision, she’s grounded, and determined […]

Organizational Culture

Humility: A Humble, Anarchistic Inquiry

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. […]

Organizational Culture

Zingerman’s 5 Elements of Building an Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is a living and breathing thing that is shaped by the beliefs and actions of everyone within an organization. And nearly all our cultures have shifted in some way or another over the last three years. We are intentionally or unintentionally defining culture every day – by the way we treat our customers, our products, our community, each […]

Organizational Culture

The Intersection of Art and Business: A Discussion with Ari Weinzweig

Business as art? There’s a concept you don’t often hear swirling around the business world these days… What would happen if everyone approached their lives as artists? What if business leaders looked at their organizations as if they were making art for the ages instead of being just vehicles for making money? What if everyone—not […]

Organizational Culture

The Spirit of Generosity

This is the third part in a topical trilogy, inspired initially by St. Augustine’s fifth-century work, “Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Charity.” My interest in St. Augustine isn’t on the formal religious implications of his work (although it’s certainly a good subject to pursue if your passions pull you in that direction), but rather on […]

Leadership Development

Why Having Hope Matters

Creating and sustaining hope in the workplace can transform how you and your employees approach your jobs every single day. This series is based on what St. Augustine wrote about in his classic Christian work, “Faith, Hope and Charity.” The first essay in this series dealt with the importance of belief in the workplace. Part […]

Leadership Development

Practical Tips for Time Management from a Recovering Urgency Addict

Had you asked me ten years ago to describe my relationship with time, I probably would not have responded positively. Time was a four-letter word; one with which I had a very contentious relationship. I was working 60-70 hours a week (on a light week), and felt constantly behind, my head barely above water. I […]

Leadership Development

Zingerman’s 12 Natural Laws of Business

The creation of the 12 Natural Laws of Business is a lot like the story they tell about gravity. Apples had been falling off trees and hitting the ground long before Sir Isaac Newton figured out how, and why, and how fast. Similarly, somewhere along the way in our over almost 38-year-long existence, Ari Weinzweig […]

Organizational Culture

The Best Swag for Your Event

It’s October. So naturally, we’re looking nine months out and thinking about our annual symposium, aptly named ZingPosium. Determining the content we’ll share and theme of the event are important, but something else we’ll be spending a lot of time thinking about is the Swag we’ll give to attendees.