This is Part 1 of a multi-part series on the basics of our Bottom-Line Training method. Creating the Training Method When ZingTrain was founded in 1994, Maggie Bayless, ZingTrainâs Founding Partner, joined the Zingermanâs Community of Businesses as the third Zingermanâs business along with the Delicatessen and the Bakehouse. Her expertise in training method and instructional […]
Last week I wrote a lot about griefâa feeling that, for nearly all of us, can be gut-wrenching. This week I want to turn my attention to a less intense element of the âecosystem,â one that plays an important, if at times almost invisible, part in our organizational health. Itâs essentially about taking the advice […]
I hadnât really planned to write about grief this week. Somehow, though I wasnât expecting it, grief and grieving seemed to keep showing up over, and over, again. Which is very much what my experience of grieving has been like. Even when I think Iâve got a handle on it, it creeps up on me […]
I often hear people say, âYou canât really teach someone how be a great service provider; people are either born that way or theyâre not.â Which makes me smile and shake my head. I certainly know that service didnât come naturally to meâand in fact I cringe when I think about how badly I […]
As I write, world leaders are gathered in Glasgow, attempting to come to consensus on a way to address the increasingly urgent world crisis of climate change. Despite what seems to be general agreement on the gravity of the situation, the visitors to Glasgow appear unable (at least so far) to coalesce around a comprehensive […]
In the spirit of last weekâs discussion of compassion and compost, I thought I could begin this piece by pulling from the place I left off by returning to the work of writer Janisse Ray. I met Ms. Ray for the first time a few weeks ago at the annual Southern Foodways Alliance symposium in Oxford, Mississippi where […]
Weâve all been in the bad meeting… Youâre left wondering why the meeting was called in the first place and why the same four people are dominating the conversation. In any meeting, in-person or virtual, itâs important to kick things off by letting everyone get their voice in the âroomâ in order to have a […]
This past spring, Joy Harjoâpoet, artist, musician, and member of the Muscogee Creek Nationâcelebrated her 70th birthday. Born in Oklahoma in the spring of 1951, Harjo has seen and experienced a good deal of suffering in the world; harm inflicted on the planet, on her people, and on herself as well. In March of this […]
Back in 1991, right around the right time I began the intentional explorations of my own emotions, Sam Keen published a book called Fire in the Belly. I read it shortly after it came out, and all these years later, Iâm still benefiting from what I learned. Three decades down the road, Iâve gone on to […]
“What do you do when your world starts to fall apart?â author Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing wonders in The Mushroom at the End of the World. Her answer: âI go for a walk, and if Iâm really lucky, I find mushrooms.â When BrenĂ© Brown asked British actress Sarah Niles, âYou, Sarah, are called to be really brave, […]
Many people, wanting to live their lives in more interesting ways, will decide to take the occasional cooking lesson A well-connected friend asked me the other day to let her know what she should tell politicians of both parties that small-business people would like to have right now. Since I struggle to find the words […]
Many people, wanting to live their lives in more interesting ways, will decide to take the occasional cooking lesson here and there, all the while continuing to do whatever it is they do for a âliving.â I went in the other direction. I started cooking for a living, and in the process, ended up with […]
