Training & Business Systems

Training & Business Systems

Recipes for Organizational Success

How can you apply the principles of good work at the stove to the work you do with staff? It’s a challenge. People drawn to the lively, loveable chaos of the food business have an aversion to too much structure. It’s natural; we like the freedom of the food world because we don’t have to […]

Leadership Development

Levels of Learning

Congratulations! You made it through the holidays. And if you’re taking the time to read this column, you must have made it through more or less intact. In the best case, it was your biggest holiday season to date and you’re feeling wonderful about how smoothly everything went — despite all the things that went […]

Training & Business Systems

Training Resolutions

Happy New Year! As the retail world catches its breath after the whirlwind of the holidays, many managers find their New Year’s resolutions include “doing something to improve training.” How about you? Now that there’s hope for a little down time, does training figure in as one of the projects you hope to accomplish? Very […]

Training & Business Systems

Management’s Role in Effective Training

My formal education was first in German literature and then later in business administration. What I know about training design, development and delivery, I’ve learned through on-the-job practice and self-study. I’ve gone to lots of seminars, designed hundreds of classes and workshops, and helped to implement effective training here at Zingerman’s. Along the way, I’ve […]

Training & Business Systems

The Manager’s Role in Staff Training

My formal education was first in German literature and then later in business administration.  What I know about training design, development and delivery I’ve learned through on-the-job practice and self study.  I’ve gone to lots of seminars, designed hundreds of classes and workshops, and helped to implement effective training here at Zingerman’s.  Along the way […]

Business Visioning

New to Visioning? Read This First…

Ian Gurfield, Co-Founder of Ian’s Pizza, is a long-time client and dear friend of ZingTrain. Below, he shares how he came to learn about Visioning, what the process of writing his first Vision was like and the impact it’s had on his business. And be sure to scroll down to to the end of this […]

Training & Business Systems

How to Hire for Positive Bottom-Line Results

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 of the economy.  One of the most frustrating situations […]

Training & Business Systems

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 […]

Training & Business Systems

Bring Your Best Self to Work

Back in 2007, when Zingerman’s wrote Zingerman’s 2020 Vision describing what the business would look like in the year 2020, we wrote that “we [Zingerman’s] have successfully quantified fun, measured fun, and improved our fun factor by at least 380% since 2007. We actively teach people how to have fun at work. We have games […]

Training & Business Systems

Training vs. Consulting

When business owners run into challenges that they’re not sure how to address—or know they can’t resolve on their own—they often start looking outside their organizations for expertise and resources.  Two common places to look are consultants and trainers.