The other day a few of us were in deep discussion at the ZingTrain offices. It was a topic we’d all discussed before and the conversation was more of a memory dredge than content – because for once (opinionated bunch that we are) we were all in agreement about the content!

The content we were discussing was creating a price incentive for someone to attend the same seminar twice and though there were some differences of opinion on what that incentive should be, we were all in agreement that attending a seminar more than once is a great idea and that we should offer whatever price incentive we can to encourage it.

It occurred to me as I participated in the conversation that we’d never formally articulated why we were all so certain that it was a great idea to attend the same seminar twice (or four times!) and that sharing our reasons could be an even greater incentive than a price break – especially in a world where time is sometimes more scarce than money!

So here goes!

1. We’re ready to hear different things at different times.

   There is much science and neuroscience and cognitive big-wordy stuff behind this observation but I believe we all know it to be true experientially. Ever read a book or watched the same movie twice?
   When it comes to training, the first time you encounter an idea, you might be listening through the filters of “Can I apply this in my world?” or perhaps you’re trying to apply this new information to experiences you’ve already had. Or if you’re like me, and a little shy, the first time you’re in a room you’ve never been in before with a bunch of people you’ve never met before, everything you hear and say has a little nervous buzz around it.

   On the other hand, if you encounter the concept again after you’ve had a chance to try it on for size or the opportunity to share it with or teach it to others, you listen in a different way and hear things you hadn’t quite heard the first time around.

   At Zingerman’s we speak of the four levels of learning. Listening. Reflecting. Assimilating & Acting. Teaching. One of the first steps of getting trained to teach a class at Zingerman’s is to attend the class again because you listen differently when you listen in order to be able to teach. In fact, I believe that we listen in different ways at each and every one of those stages of learning [a topic ripe for a longer conversation and perhaps the subject of a future newsletter!] but the point here is that it’s well worth our time to attend the same training multiple times as we move through the different levels of learning.

2. We hear different things amongst different cohorts.
   ZingTrain seminar attendees come from all walks of life, every size of business you can think of and pretty much every level of the organization. We frequently hear this feedback from our seminar attendees : “It was so reassuring to find that other successful and driven businesses/business owners/managers/trainers/(insert organizational group of your choice here) face the same challenges I do!” It is indeed.

   As you might imagine, in that setting, infused with the excitement of having found peers, one might listen to the content and the reactions of the other seminar attendees with a particular filter. But if you were to attend the same seminar with your boss and a very clear (and hopefully inspiring!) mandate on what to bring back to the business from the seminar, you’d listen differently. Or if you were the boss and you were coming with five of your staff, you might listen differently. I could continue with the examples, but I think you’re seeing the point, yes?

Those are two broad categories and I believe they cover a pretty nuanced range of situations in which we might hear the same information differently. I’m certain there are more and I’m certain that you’d have some excellent suggestions which I would love to hear. But while we all put our heads together to compile a more exhaustive list, I’d like to share a different way to think about the same idea – this idea of the factors that affect what we “hear” in training and what we do with our training. At Zingerman’s, the leader’s role in training is to provide the staff with Context, Reinforcement, Use [CRU].

• Context: This refers to the context we use to frame the information we are hearing. Do you have a vision for your business and is the seminar one of the resources that is going to help you get there? Did your leadership send you to the seminar with the mandate that you are to implement a way to measure customer service within 3 months of attending the seminar? Are you coming back to the seminar to feel inspired and re-invigorated?
• Reinforcement: This particular aspect makes more sense when you’re the Leader providing positive reinforcement for your staff members after they’ve completed the training. And yet, if you’re the business owner attending the seminar, it couldn’t really hurt to give yourself a little positive reinforcement about your decision to come! You can find that amongst like-minded peers or in your journals or just call us!
• Use: As you might imagine, Use literally refers to using the information you encounter in training. We think this is a critical step, and in fact, we recommend that people use what they learn in training within 48 hours of learning it because otherwise – poof!

Ultimately, if the Context or Reinforcement or Use changes, the listening and learning change and in our experience, become deeper and richer and more nuanced.

As you read this, please know that the point of this edition of OnTrack isn’t just to have you come back for a ZingTrain seminar you’ve already taken (although we would be so incredibly happy if you did) – the point is to also frame a different way of thinking of training and how you can effectively use (re)training in your organization. Whether it’s because it’s been a tough winter and everyone is just ready for a little inspiration or because a particular systemic change you were trying to implement didn’t stick or you want to give a boost to a particular systemic change that you really, really want to stick, it’s worth considering using your existing training resources in a different context.

All of which makes for a nice conversation but perhaps it still feels a little theoretical at this point? So here’s a little check-list of real life situations that might help bring home what I’m really trying to say here.

I would attend the same training twice because:

• I want to reward the team for a great season.
• I want to start teaching this topic.
• I’ve become competent at this but now I want to be a ninja!
• I want to get re-inspired.
• I want the team to get re-inspired.
• I hit a roadblock.
• I want to infuse new energy into an old system.
• I want to take implementation to the next level.
• I want to “shepherd” new staff into our organization by attending training with them.
• I miss ZingTrain and the seminar lunches!

Which one resonates with you? What would you add to the checklist? I would attend the same training twice because… I can’t wait to hear from you!

And what they taught us about our business and ourselves!

Who writes about the weather in January? It’s winter. White stuff falls from the sky and it’s uncomfortably cold. What’s to write about?

And then we had a crazy big snowfall. Right on its heels came this Polar Vortex phenomenon (what?). And pretty soon, and rightly so, the weather was all we were talking about.

And since I usually write about what’s on my mind in these newsletters, that’s what I decided to do. I went around Zingerman’s and asked people from various businesses and levels of the organization.

Ari Weinzweig
Co-Founder, Zingerman’s

THE TRUTH IS OBVIOUS. OR THE OBVIOUS HOLDS TRUE.

To state the obvious, I learned that when things like that happen, it’s really hard to function. And that people who are living in hardship or on the edge have a much harder time. And if those people are trying to function in settings where they don’t have a lot of empathy and support, it becomes even more challenging.

In terms of whether I learned something about myself, not surprisingly I thought about your question in terms of managing one’s self. Like just about everyone else in the world, I have plenty of challenges that I deal with on a day to day basis and a new challenge like that can add disproportionate amounts of stress to the mix. If you’re doing the work of managing yourself on a day to day basis, and surrounding yourself with the right people in a supportive environment, then the new stress becomes somewhat easier to handle. It’s like if you get sick – which is never a good thing – but if you’re already in great shape because you exercise and eat right then the toll the illness takes on your body is easier to get through.

Oh, and I have new respect for people from Alberta.

Amy Emberling
Managing Partner, Zingerman’s Bakehouse

OUR WORK ETHIC & VALUES

I learned that we have a really strong work ethic at the Bakehouse. There was no question that the work was going to go on. And despite the weather and the roads, people made it in to work. Even the late shifts. And the very early shifts. One of our night shift people left work at 1 am and didn’t get home until 7:30 am.

We had Bakehouse deliveries round the clock despite the weather. My first thought in the morning was – Is everyone okay? The first thing I did was check my phone.

At a personal level, and as a partner at the Bakehouse, the experience led me to ask myself – is that perspective (the work must go on) really the best? Are those our values? Do I really want to put the Bakehouse employees in danger?

Coming out of it, I have a huge feeling of gratitude that all of the people that work at the Bakehouse are safe. And I want to think about what we will do as a business if we face something like that in the future? It’s a large discussion but we can at least set up a system of people helping each other – giving someone a ride if they are uncomfortable driving in this weather, for example.

Anya [Boss o’ the Baristas]
& Allen [Managing Partner]
Zingerman’s Coffee Company

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET CREATIVE.

Anya: The intense snow and cold brought us problems that we’ve never encountered before and it was surprising how smoothly, creatively and cheaply we were able to fix things. The staff worked together, considering difficulties that would occur and pre-emptively preparing for them. This included trading shifts for people who lived further away so that they would not have to travel on unsafe roads and coming up with delivery plans if trucks couldnt fit into our loading dock. No one panicked and when trouble arose, we just made it work.

Allen: We didn’t really think twice (or even once for that matter) about whether we were going to be open or not. And it was a good thing too because I believe we provided a third place for some people that really needed one. We had some customers who camped out at the Coffee Shop all day. We learned some interesting mechanical things – s&$% behaves a lot different at those temperatures – like truck batteries and HVAC. Also, it presented us with some great opportunities – we got some languishing projects done and took some great Facebook photos!

ZingTrain Staff

AS AN ICE-BREAKER AT OUR WEEKLY STAFF HUDDLE
I learned that:

• I need to be more flexible. I’m a planner and crazy situations like that make all your plans somewhat pointless and that’s frustrating but in the end it all works out anyway.
• Our clients are very dedicated. If they came in from Cleveland during a snowstorm for their ZingTrain session, how could I not make it from across town? I also appreciated how much everyone really pitches in and helps each other out at times like these. We just got together and made it all work and I really appreciate being part of an organization like that.
• The systems we put in place are for a reason and when we encounter a challenging circumstance like the vortex, the reasoning behind our systems become clear to me.
• We don’t do a lot of the “Not my problem” or “Not my job”. We all help each other out!

EJ Olsen
Zingerman’s Marketing

Despite being Great Lakes born and bred and with deep family roots Up North and in Canada, I am less and less tolerant of sustained bouts of “real” winter as the years pass. I find myself daydreaming of beaches and clear, blue water. Or, heck, even rainy and mid-40’s would be better than the Antarctic Hammer we endured this week. I think I’m still numb…

Mike White, Retail Manager
Zingerman’s Delicatessen

WITH ENOUGH LAYERS & ENOUGH PATIENCE, EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE

This weather has brought our typical, slow season to a very dramatic start. Plenty of things ran through my head, so-slow-we-should-send-everyone-home-but-we-need-people-to-shovel, or we-can’t-give-great-service-if-they’re-are-no-guests-to-serve, or if-every-guest-buys-a-wheel-of-parmigiano-we-still-won’t-make-plan. But that’s why I mentioned patience earlier. It could be easy to get caught up in those sort of reactions if it weren’t for patience, if it weren’t for that moment: In the midst of snow covered darkness a group of guests come in from the cold. Their first, hopeful words: are you open? A bread salesman: yes. They say, warmly: thank you.

In moments like this it’s easy to show gratitude, to know and share that feeling with our guests. When the storm stripped away what we hold so dearly, our sales and our 3-steps and our interest in food being overcome by our interest in warmth, we are left with the core of our interactions. And there, right there all along, is that gratitude.

When we are patient we will know when to act, and more importantly, why to act. In that way, I’d like to keep those moments from the storm alive throughout the slow season. And that in every interaction we know our gratitude is honest.