Socially-conscious chocolate maker, Shawn Askinosie shared Ari Weinzweig’s latest business book with his partners in Tanzania today!

For more information on the book visit: https://www.zingtrain.com/power-beliefs-in-business

The energy was palpable. Between the unveiling of a new venue and the buzz around a highly anticipated new book, the energy in the room was electric. The bustling city views of Ann Arbor and its passersby served as the perfect backdrop to explain what was happening in that room.

The attendees came from all walks of life. Jane and Paul Jones had travelled from Grand Rapids. “We’re probably aren’t the ones who had to travel the farthest; people come from all over the country to hear Ari speak!”, Judy told me. There were entrepreneurs and sociologists and social workers and professors. There were people from all walks and stages of life. The youngest attendee, Luell, came with his dad, who helped Ari with the book. When asked why he was excited to attend the event, Luell said: “I get to be someone. I get to be the youngest person here and I get to see what older people do!” Luell’s father, Teddy Araya, is the founder of the Center for African Leadership Studies and is mentioned in the new book. A few other attendees were also referenced in the new book including Hannah McNaughton, founder and Chief Envisionary at Envision Marketing.

The sleek lines of the Greyline, Zingerman’s newest, downtown event space, were reminiscent of the Art Deco style of the historic Ann Arbor Bus Depot it now occupies. The style of the Art Deco era used lines to create a sense of speed, of movement. It’s a perfect match for the Greyline, a new space that represents the movement of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses – expanding and moving into the future with a recognizable and influential style.

The event held at the brand new venue was a public introduction to co-founder and CEO of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses Ari Weinzweig’s newest book; the fourth in a series of books expounding Zingerman’s unique approach to business.

As the attendees were taking their seats and discussing the space and what brought them to the event, a woman from the University of Michigan relayed that what she was curious about Ari’s choice to focus on the concept of beliefs. She asked aloud: “Why did he pick the word belief instead of any other words? I’m just curious because I think that’s what’s most powerful. Beliefs are more than values, it’s about something more empowering in yourself. And feeling an external spiritual connection to something outside of yourself.”

Ari’s newest book, Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading, Part 4: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to the Power of Beliefs in Business, is a new approach and a breath of fresh air in the world of business writing. The book is a detailed analysis of how our personal beliefs color our personal world and affect the changeable outcomes of our work. “Beliefs are the root system. They are what’s happening beneath the surface, that directly impacts what’s happening above ground.” Ari describes his newest work as his most personal yet. His early personal beliefs in the late 1970’s about business were negative until he realized that business is just a tool “that can be applied with harm or kindness”. Four years later he would be starting his first business.

The interview was facilitated by Vic Strecher, author of On Purpose: A Graphic Novel, and a professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. “Why beliefs? Why not things that people hold very dear to them, very close to them like their core values?” Vic asked. To which Ari responded: “All values are beliefs, but not all beliefs are values.” Ari went on to describe how even the information around us is colored by our preconceived or unconscious beliefs: the data we take in is radically altered by our beliefs.” Vic confirms the notion that humans are swayed by beliefs and experience: “We filter out information that doesn’t fit with our beliefs. We live in a ‘filter bubble'”. Ari pointed out that although many of us regularly say, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’… it’s actually the other way around. “We’ll see it when we believe it.

After discussing the book and its roots with Vic, the event was opened to audience questions. A young entrepreneur, Holly Rutt of The Little Flower Soap Co. and Sweet Pea Floral Design, thanked Ari for giving her the courage to pursue her entrepreneurial passion while disregarding all of the negative feedback people had tried to feed her about business. “I think as a business owner and a woman, the powers that be wanted to tell me that I couldn’t be myself. I’m very philosophical and very hopeful, that’s definitely a part of me. But I’m also interested in business and a business owner, and I felt like I was being told, other peoples’ beliefs, that those things were mutually exclusive. I feel like all of your books, and I’m excited to read this one, are giving me the permission to be all of those and fuse them together.”

Walking away from the event that evening, I could feel how Ari had not only touched on an important part of growing and steering a company (the beliefs with which they are founded and maintained), but I felt he was tapping into a theory about our cultural moment in time. How do our collective beliefs, or perhaps more importantly, the beliefs all of smaller groups hold maintain or change the status quo? How could we as individuals work to change our beliefs to create the outcomes we’re seeking? It’s an incredibly large question that Ari has tried to distill into 600 pages. I have a feeling there’s probably a second volume on his computer.

However, the opportunity to learn from Ari, one of Ann Arbor’s preeminent thought leaders is not limited to reading his work. From his employees to his customers to the people he meets throughout his travels, Ari is an open book. And he writes books. A winning combination.

Part 4 in the Guide to Good Leading series shares 11 more “Secrets” from of one of the country’s most progressive companies!

Thirty-four years ago Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig opened Zingerman’s Delicatessen with a staff of two and a $20,000 bank loan. Today Zingerman’s—a place Inc. magazine called “The Coolest Small Company in America”— is a creative collaborative of ten different businesses in the Ann Arbor area, employing over 700 people and doing sales of about $60,000,000 a year. With the release of Ari’s new book, Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading, Part 4: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to the Power of Beliefs in Business, more of the secrets behind the business’ success are now available to the world.

Parts 1, 2, and 3 have gained wide acclaim from progressive business leaders—and readers—over the last seven years. Part 1, A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business, explores Zingerman’s unique approaches to organizational visioning, values, mission, systems and culture. Part 2, Being a Better Leader, dives deep into subjects like Servant Leadership, Stewardship, and energy management, as well as an in-depth look at Ari’s beliefs about anarchism’s application in 21st century progressive business. Part 3, Managing Ourselves, examines Ari’s experiences with mindfulness, self-management, personal visioning, time management, free choice, creativity and more. All have become essential reading for leaders looking to leave behind the old mainstream business models and create progressive, forward thinking organizations.

And now the eagerly-awaited fourth volume in the series is hot off the local presses and on the shelves at Zingerman’s. Some of the country’s foremost thought leaders have already weighed in. Business philosopher and author Peter Koestenbaum says, “Ari’s new book is a gem in today’s revolutionary leadership movement.” Dr. Michael D. Amos adds, “I love the first three books in the series. But I believe this new volume is Ari’s greatest work.”

As with all of the books in this series, the essays in Part 4 are guaranteed to get the reader thinking in new and creative ways. John U. Bacon, author of the New York Times bestseller, Endzone: The Rise, Fall and Return of Michigan Football, writes: “Some business leaders know practice. Some know theory. Ari Weinzweig is one of the few who knows both. He and his partners have built a famously successful organization, while giving it more thought than the business gurus who merely philosophize about such things. The insights Ari shares here are both deeply perceptive and highly practical, from the ideas of Howard Zinn, Viktor Frankl, and Anaïs Nin on one page, to the importance of learning your employees’ names on the next. Like its author, this book is uncommonly smart, helpful, and just plain fun.”

The insights in Part 4 illuminate a transformative new way of looking at—and working in—the world. What we believe about our organization, ourselves, our products, customers, coworkers, and the world at large is impacting every decision we make and action we take. Most of us though, all too often, aren’t aware of what we believe, let alone understand the impact our beliefs have on our lives at work. Dr. Amos writes of the new book, “Examining the power of beliefs as Ari has done is the missing link to understanding the power of harnessing higher levels of human performance and engaging in the spirit of strategy.”  

Ari writes about the eye-opening effect that the increased awareness of beliefs has had on his own life. In studying the subject, he shares in the book’s Introduction: “It turns out that I’d ‘discovered’ a major player in the drama and dreams that make up my life, both personally and professionally. It was as if I’d been focusing on the play itself, the lines of the script, and the way actors sounded from the stage, but altogether ignoring the playwright who wrote the words and set the stage—literally and figuratively—for them to all be there doing what they do.”  

As with the other three volumes in the series, Part 4 is framed around individual essays, each labeled (with Ari’s usual tongue-in-cheek humor) as “Secrets.”  Parts 1, 2 and 3 in the Guide to Good Leading series (see zingermanspress.com) contain Secrets #1 through #39. The new volume, Part 4, showcases Secrets #40-49.

The first four of those Secrets take a deep dive into Ari’s new learnings about beliefs—how they underlie every decision we make; how our beliefs create the realities around us (even the problems we profess not to like); why we will only get to organizational greatness when we root our work and our worldview in positive beliefs; and, as with all the books in the series, a practical, and well-practiced recipe, in this case, for changing our beliefs. Part 4 also includes essays that detail Ari’s approaches on how to build hope and the spirit of generosity in the workplace. There’s more on Ari’s expanding and innovative beliefs about anarchism in business. For those who like to learn the practical application of the theory, the book includes three Secrets on particularly effective ways in which Zingerman’s builds positive beliefs, hope, and generosity into its organizational fabric—its new staff orientation class, its engaging approach to One + One work, and Zingerman’s unique visioning process.

While the two essays in the book on hope in the workplace don’t get title status, they may be just as powerful as the pieces about beliefs. Innovative, socially-conscious, chocolate maker Shawn Askinosie says, “Ari’s new work on hope is one of those rare essays that speak to my soul. This project on hope gives me practical real world applications to the principles Ari sets forth. All I have to do is take a deep breath, sit down, pick up this essay and I feel hope knowing that it’s possible to serve joyfully in the midst of chaos.”

Other experts around the country have also weighed in with high praise. Restaurateur and writer Danny Meyer adds, “The Power of Beliefs in Business is chock full of fresh wisdom—and enough memorable ‘Ari-isms’—to set anyone up to be a champion.” Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals, says: “With a tablespoon of generosity and history, a dash of food, and a pinch of art and anarchism, Ari delivers a tasty recipe for building healthy organizations.”  

As with all of Ari’s written work on leadership, the book brings together the voices of progressive business writers, anarchists, philosophers, poets, painters, and a healthy peppering of Zingerman’s partners, staff, customers, and suppliers. Written in his distinctive, conversational style, with plenty of good quotes and quips, the material in the book will challenge the beliefs of any business thinker and progressive leader. As Ari writes in the Introduction, “as you read and reflect on what follows, it’s likely that some of your beliefs will be challenged—even changed.” And from that, your actions, and hence, your life, as well.

Peter Koestenbaum concludes: “Ari’s writing is very readable and continually it is spot-on wise.”  And, he makes clear, “Ari’s writing will change the reader.”  

Oops.
Forgot your boss? Need one more gift for your 5-year-old who just started reading chapter books?
Join us at the ZingTrain offices on your lunch break this Friday, December 21, 12:30-1:30p.

Ari will be here, signing his books. There are several to choose from – he’s written books about Bacon, Food, Customer Service and Business. The Lapsed Anarchist series is a holiday favorite this year – Part 1 and 2 at the special price of $50 (regularly $59.90). And we have more Holiday Book Deals here.
We’ll also have Delicious Treats, Warming Beverages, and extremely talented ZingTrain gift-wrappers!   

RSVP if you can, but  please join us even if you don’t.

And while you’re at Zingerman’s Southside, visit our other businesses:

• 29 Paces from ZingTrain is the Zingerman’s Coffee Company, with expert baristas and the last couple of weeks of the Holiday Blend, which makes a great gift.
• 61 Paces from ZingTrain is the Zingerman’s Creamery. Who doesn’t want Gelato and Cheese for the holidays?
• 99 Paces from ZingTrain is the Zingerman’s Bakehouse. Stollen! Need I say more? Okay, I will. Pannettone. Holiday Cookies. Cranberry Pecan Bread … and Yes! outrageously good candy from the Zingerman’s Candy Company!