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

 

Episode 007 Zingerman’s Amy Emberling Hiring, Systems and Success

Amy Emberling, Managing Partner of Zingerman’s Bakehouse, has been an avid food lover and baker since her childhood in Nova Scotia, Canada where she often treated friends to after-school concoctions. She grew up in a family business and always hoped to have her own business one day.

Inspired And Intentional Business Podcast Amy Emberling, ZingTrain Pt 1

In addition to her work at the Bakehouse, Amy also teaches seminars for ZingTrain in two seminars: Leading with Zing and Bottom Line Training. She is also one of the partners of Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory (with Charlie Frank), which was developed in the bakery.

In this episode we talk a bit about:

  • Letting systems help during those times when your people aren’t at their best.
  • Finding and hiring the right kind of people.
  • One way of defining success for each member of your team.

Episode 7 Questions

  1. Do your systems allow people to fall back on them to achieve the organizational goals if they’re not having the best day and need a hand to create a great customer experience?
  2. Are people aware of what your company really stands for and what they’re getting into when they choose to come work for your company?
  3. Is your hiring, training, and ongoing development in alignment with your mission and vision of what you want your company to look like in 5, 10, 15 years?

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

While you’re here 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.

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 issues like training systems, getting dissenting opinions to bubble up in your team, and having those difficult employee conversations.

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

The inspired and intentional business  podcast is copyright 2015 by it’s owner. The music is Funk Game Loop, Kevin MacLeod Royalty Free from Incompatech. Thank you for sharing your talent.

Episode 006 Maggie Bayless, Business Systems, and Staying Inspired

In the last episode Maggie talked about Zingerman’s managing partner program and the role of Zingtrain. This week we’ll talk about business systems, staying motivated as an owner and the future of Zingtrain.

Maggie Bayless, Managing Parnter ZingTrain, and Todd Reed
Todd Reed (me) and Maggie Bayless, Managing Partner ZingTrain.

When the interview begins, she’s telling us one of the reasons why someone decides to take a ZingTrain class, which very quickly moves into the conversation about systems.

This week’s questions:

  1. Maggie begins with systems – do you have any in your business? More importantly, are they focused on helping you achieve your mission? Do they allow your people to be creatively do things that will differentiate your business?
  2. What energized you most when you started your business? Have you lost touch with that energy? What would it take for you to get back in touch with it? How could this help your employees be more excited about the work they’re doing?
  3. Do you want your business to go beyond you? What would it take to make this happen in your business? If you have potential leaders in your business, could you sit with them to create a vision of succession that would get them and you excited about the future of your business?

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

On the comments below, on Twitter @ToddAReed, on LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com/in/toddareed, and on Facebook, search for inspired and intentional.

You can get hold of Maggie by emailing her at mbayless@zingermans.com.

https://twitter.com/ToddAReed

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

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

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. 

Next week we’ll talk with Amy Emberling of Zingerman’s Bakehouse.

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

The inspired and intentional business  podcast is copyright 2015 by it’s owner. The music is Funk Game Loop, Kevin MacLeod Royalty Free from Incompatech. Thank you for sharing your talent.

 

Global Leadership Summit 2015 Day 1 Highlights

I enjoyed my first day of the Global Leadership Summit 2015. Nice array of speakers and a good format that mixed things up.

Speakers today included
Bill Hybels
Adam Grant
Jim Collins
Albert Tate
Sallie Krawcheck
Dr Brene Brown
and a cool stories about a church in Uganda working on housing and repentance for the country; Warden from the Angola Prison in Louisiana; and the Nature Sweet Tomatoes company (now on my list to interview).