Zingerman’s – An Employee’s Perspective Ep 45

This is my repodcast of my interview with Matthew Bodary, Zingerman’s Coffee Company Account Manager.

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

He’s thoughtful and shares great insight on what it’s like to be an employee at a Zingerman’s company.

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Unleash the Unlimited Potential of Your Team

Shawn is an author, consultant and podcaster
Shawn is an author, consultant and podcaster

Questions

Does your company have a set of values that all know to help them be on the same page on how you’re going to succeed as a company?

Does your team feel free to contribute ideas?

Switch and Shift – what does the “human side of business” mean? Continue reading Unleash the Unlimited Potential of Your Team

Believe It: Government Employees Solve Problems Cindy Stein Pt 02

Welcome to part 2 with Cindy Stein, Greene County Missouri Auditor since 1994.

Cindy Stein is the Greene County Auditor running the Great Game of Business in Government
Cindy Stein – Greene County Auditor

We’ll continue our conversation with Cindy today about how the Great Game of Business is being implemented in the Greene County Government.

Social Friendly Shareables:

“Are your employees bringing solutions to the organization’s problems?”

“Moody’s cites Open Book Management as one of the reason’s Greene County has come out of it’s economic troubles.”

“It’s not the leadership, it’s the Greene County employees that got us to a better place financially.”

“Not only did we improve cash balance, but we also had 18 pages of efficiency improvements.”

“Getting fully engaged employees involved in projections helps expedite the budgeting process.”

Questions Continue reading Believe It: Government Employees Solve Problems Cindy Stein Pt 02

Episode 12 Matthew Bodary Pt 3 Employee Training, Meetings, and Engagement

I’m excited to continue with my conversation with Matthew Bodary, Account Manager for Zingerman’s Coffee Company.

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

This week Matthew we’ll cover topics like

    • Employee training
    • Visioning
    • Meetings
    • What is employee engagement?

1. Is your training given context? Is it explained why it’s there, what it’s about? Is it organized and easily tracked so they and their team know where they are in the training cycle?

2. Visioning – Are you and your people very clear on what success looks like in  your organization?

3. Meetings – are your’s focused, everyone prepared, expected roles, set agendas, starting on time, and have clear objectives?

4. Engagement – He said, “Picturing yourself sharing in the creation of something special.”- Again with the clear vision, where your organization is going and what it will look like. Can your team see that, understand, and see how they fit into that and what role they can contribute to be part of something bigger than themselves?

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/episode12. You can find links to the coffee he mentioned Honduras Pablo Paz coffee that was partially funded by Aldea Development. 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. Until next week, be inspired and intentional.

The inspired and intentional business  podcast is copyright 2016 by it’s owner. The music is Funk Game Loop, Kevin MacLeod Royalty Free from Incompatech. Thank you for sharing your talent.

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.

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! : )

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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.

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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.

The inspired and intentional business podcast is copyright 2016 by it’s owner. The music is Funk Game Loop, Kevin MacLeod Royalty Free from Incompatech. Thank you for sharing your talent.

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