December 2015 – Inspired and Intentional Business

2015 Review Employee Engagement, Collaboration, Vision, and Open Book Management

A young chef finds her passion for cooking again, a factory worker’s marriage improves because he’s talking more with his wife, and an owner regains her energy and love for business as she finds a renewed purpose and a vision for her company.

Todd Reed and Ari Weinzweig, Cofounder and partner of Zingerman's — Todd Reed and Ari Weinzweig

These are a few of the stories I heard while interviewing the gang at Zingerman’s for the first few episodes of the Inspired and Intentional business podcast.

This episode is going to be a brief overview of the top lessons learned and to also point out a few resources I’ve learned of while getting this podcast going.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Lessons:

1. There’s an art to this whole culture thing. To creating and thinking about organizational development. Really thinking through how your people, customers, suppliers and community experience your company. Are you adding benefits beyond pay, product/services and taxes? Why should you?

Maggie Bayless and Todd A Reed in front of ZingTrain's Big Board — I had the opportunity to interview Maggie Bayless, Managing Partner of ZingTrain.

2. People will make up stories in a vacuum. Fill in the holes with truth, openness, and authenticity. Work through what they need to know by putting yourself in their shoes and thinking through what they worry about. What questions will they ask you?

This really goes beyond the simple issue of being open during a crisis. This vacuum is filled day by day via the building of trust within the team. You can’t be open in a crisis and expect people to believe you, you have to open all the time. During the good and the bad.

This topic came up during the discussion of numbers, salaries, profits and what the owners are making, and why certain decisions are made. If they don’t understand numbers and how a company makes a profit and generates cash…on a daily basis, they will make up stories about where all that money is going. (Probably to the government and the bank! : )

3. Collaboration and consensus doesn’t mean you have to agree all the time and always see eye-to-eye on all decisions. Collaboration does need the parties involved to share values and vision. It also doesn’t mean that every decision has to be by consensus or by democratic vote. Just be clear on how the decisions are being made and who’s involved in the process.

4. Systems help employees consistently perform their best when they otherwise don’t feel like it.

5. Dissent – come up with ways to encourage it. There’s the “what’s working/not working” meeting or the open forum method.

6. Create a system for change. Some call it Kaizen and some continuous improvement. Zingerman’s calls it Bottom Line Change.

7. The importance of a vision. So many of the issues brought up would come down to vision. Do your systems support you vision? Do you HR practices support the vision? People are engaged when they’re clear on the vision, take part in creating it, and understand the role they play in making that vision a reality.

Clarity, communication, and consistency are the 3 “C” words I would use when working with my vision.

Please leave your suggestions for interviews, companies, and resources in the comments below or on one of the following channels:

One last favor, reviews and ratings really help other leaders looking for a podcast to inspire them. Please take a moment to review this podcast on iTunes or stitcher.

Thank you for listening and join us next week as continue our conversation with Matthew Bodary from Zingerman’s Coffee Company. Until next week, be inspired and intentional.

Resources

Classes – Books – Tours – Certifications

B-Corp – from their website – “B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.”

BW Leadership Institute – a Barry Wehmiller company

Everybody Matters Book by Bob Chapman

Great Game of Business – business coaching, classes, free resources

Hitachi Foundation – Good Companies at Work

Holocracy – A complete system for self organization

ZingTrain (Books, DVDs, classes, and free resources like essays and webinars.)

News Feeds and Blogs

Forbes – Bill Fotsch and John Case – They write We write about economic transparency and open-book management

Huffington Post – Impact News Feed – good news in the world of business and volunteers

Huffington Post – What’s Working Purpose+Profit – News Feed

Truly Human Leadership – Barry Wehmiller blog written by Bob Chapman, their CEO. This also ties into their podcast, Everybody Matters. They claim to be transforming lives through people-centric leadership.

Talks – Webinars – Podcasts

TED Talk’s Social Good, Inc – ways companies are contributing to the greater good.

TED Talk – Barry Schwartz – How we think about work is broken

TED Talk – Ricardo Semler – How to run a company with (almost) no rules

Businesses that seem to be running well.

Amy’s Ice Cream

Barry Wehmiller – Building a better world through business.

SRC Holdings – The remanufacturing company that started it all – The Great Game of Business anyway.

Tasty Catering – Illinois catering company that has successfully changed the way they do business.

Zingermans Community of Businesses

Special Episode Todd Reeds Zingerman’s Guide to Great Service

My first book overview for the podcast. This is not so much a review as an overview. You can view this as a video or on the podcast formats.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

or on YouTube

Buy Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service directly from ZingTrain.

Please let me know what you think of this in the comments below, or on one of the Inspired social outlets, Twitter @ToddAReed, on LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com/in/toddareed, and on Facebook, search for inspired and intentional.

One last favor, reviews and ratings really help other leaders looking for a podcast to inspire them. Please take a moment to review this podcast on iTunes or stitcher.

Last thing, be sure to sign up for email updates on the latest podcast episodes and Inspired and Intentional news.

Episode 10 Matthew Bodary Pt 1 Zingerman’s Employee Perspective

Gallup says 70% of US employees are disengaged from their work. This causes, what Ari Weinzweig calls an energy crisis in the workplace. Lost innovation, productivity and profits. Not to mention the tolls on the communities.

Matthew Bodary shares an employee's perspective on Zingermans — Todd Reed and Matthew Bodary at ZingTrain

There are companies and organizations working to improve this. they are creating more open and collaborative work environments. They are realizing that treating people with dignity and providing meaningful work can be done while also running a financially solid organization.

My hope with this podcast is to inspired leaders to make intentional choices to balance profit and social impact.

Welcome to the inspired and intentional podcast, I’m your host, Todd Reed. I would like to thank all those who have reviewed the podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Today will be the first part of our series with Matthew Bodary, Zingerman’s Coffee Company Account Manager. This first part is a slight departure from the other episodes in that this is more of a personal story of a young man at the beginning of his career journey. He is an employee of a Zingerman’s company and not a managing partner like the previous episodes.

After recording this episode, I thought I would cut most of this first part and give you a brief synopsis. However, upon further listening I was convinced that I wanted to share his telling and version of the story because it gives insight into him and his view of Zingerman’s more clearly than I could. I also felt a tad like this episode channels a little of Studs Terkel.

Here are the questions for this week’s episode:

1. When new employees start working at working at your company, do they believe they’ve stumbled upon something special?

2. Great Food. Great Service. Great Finance. The 3 Bottom Lines of Zingermans. Is the “main focus” of your business this clear to your employees?

3. Do you have an opportunity for your people to grow within your current organization or by creating a new opportunity that supports your current business?

I would love to see your answers at one of the many Inspired and Intentional outlets:

You can find show notes, the questions, at inspiredandintentional.com/episode10. While there you can also sign up to be kept up to date on the latest podcasts and happenings in the world of Inspired and Intentional business news.

I can also be reached on Twitter @ToddAReed, on LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com/in/toddareed, and on Facebook, search for inspired and intentional.

You can get hold of Matthew by emailing him at mbodary@zingermans.com.

One last favor, reviews and ratings really help other leaders looking for a podcast to inspire them. Please take a moment to review this podcast on iTunes or stitcher.

Thank you for listening and until next week, be inspired and intentional.

Episode 9 Amy Emberling Pt 3 Organizational Change Process

Join me for the 3rd part of my conversation with Amy Emberling, Managing Partner of Zingerman’s Bakehouse and Candy Manufactory.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This week we’ll talk about:

Entrepreneurship and Innovation
A process for nurturing change within your organization
Succession planning and what keeps Amy inspired to keep improving

Amy Emberling at ZingTrain talking organizational change — Todd Reed and Amy Emberling, Zingerman’s Bakehouse Managing Partnere

Here are the questions for this week’s episode:

Amy said that they’re more innovative than entrepreneurial at this stage of the business, because entrepreneur to her implies more risk and boldness. When they innovate, they’re not putting the business at risk as much. At what stage is your company? Do you need to take a few more risks?
Amy talked to bottom line change. Their process, as outlined in the interview (I know there’s more involved here, get one of Ari’s books and see all the details.). Big thing I got from this: if you have an idea for a change realize that you’re going to need to sell this idea to the interested parties. (Maybe teach your team sales and negotiations even if that’s not their primary role.)
What inspires you to keep improving? Or, are you inspired to keep improving or innovating. She talked about new ideas just coming to her all the time. Do you have that? If not, how can you re-engergize that within yourself?
Have you consider succession planning and the future of your organization? How can you continue the vision?

I would love to see your answers at one of the many Inspired and Intentional outlets:

In the comments below.
Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook

Process for change –

Make the case for the change you are proposing. (Who, what, when, where, and why. IE the reasons you want or believe this change needs to happen.)
Create a draft vision for it. Remember, this means: what does it look like after the change is in place.
Start shopping it around and sharing it with people. I believe the current buzzword for this is socialize the idea. This step should reveal the inevitable resistance to the proposed change. You want resistance because if there’s no resistance then people may not be paying attention or they don’t care how it is. Resistance shows a commitment and engagement to the process.
Once the idea has some energy and acceptance, gather a “microcosm” of people from around the organization to help you determine who to tell about the change and how to tell it. This is your marketing team. They help reveal the parties that this may affect that you’ve not thought of.
Develop first steps and start the change.
Throughout the process, people will challenge it to see if it fits the vision of the company and business unit.

Sign up to be kept up to date on the latest podcasts and happenings in the world of Inspired and Intentional business news.

You can get hold of Amy by emailing her at aemberling@zingermans.com or by calling the bakery at 734-761-7255.

Book Amy is reading to be inspired – Martin Seligman – Flourish

One last favor, reviews and ratings really help other leaders looking for a podcast to inspire them. Please take a moment to review this podcast on iTunes or stitcher.

Thank you for reading and until next week, be inspired and intentional.

Episode 8 Amy Emberling Dissenting Opinions, Training Systems, and Vision

Join me for the 2nd part of my conversation with Amy Emberling, Managing Partner of Zingerman’s Bakehouse and Candy Manufactory. This week we’ll talk about:

Training systems
Culture and pulling dissenting opinions to make the team stronger.
Having the difficult conversations.
Keeping excitement and focus for a long term vision.

Todd Reed, Inspired and Intentional Podcast host with Amy Emberling, Managing Partner Zingerman's Bakehouse — Todd Reed and Amy Emberling, Managing Partner Zingerman’s Bakehouse

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Here are the questions for this week’s episode:

She talked about a training compact and setting clear expectations for the new hires. Also, that training is a two-way street and both parties are responsible. Do you have a system for new hires to take responsibility for their own training. More importantly, are you able to adapt to the various ways people learn.
Amy presented a couple ways to get dissent to bubble up in the company. Either a “working, not working” set of questions during meetings. Or, to hold an open forum where ideas are presented and then teams share their likes and dislikes, thus allowing anonymity. What have you done that has helped bring up a diversity of viewpoints in order to get to the most unique and strongest ideas?
In regards to your process for discipline/performance reviews – do you consider the following:

The dignity of the person?
How would you like to leave?
What would like the story to be?
Do you want to tell people or have us do it?

4. Keeping the momentum up for a long term vision. How can you break down your vision into smaller bite size pieces to keep the momentum and focus on the long-term goals?

I would love to see your answers at one of the many Inspired and Intentional outlets:

Be sure to sign up to be kept up to date on the latest podcasts and happenings in the world of Inspired and Intentional business news.

I can also be reached on Twitter @ToddAReed, on LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com/in/toddareed, and on Facebook, search for inspired and intentional.

https://twitter.com/ToddAReed

https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddareed

https://www.facebook.com/Inspired-and-Intentional-1658283491074728/

You can get hold of Amy by emailing her at aemberling@zingermans.com.

One last favor, reviews and ratings really help other leaders looking for a podcast to inspire them. Please take a moment to review this podcast on iTunes or stitcher. There are links from my website to help you do this.

Next week we’ll continue our talk with Amy Emberling. She’ll cover entrepreneurship vs innovation, a process for organizational change and introduce me to Pavlova.

Thank you for listening and until next week, be inspired and intentional.