Staff Training: Training Resolutions

Happy New Year! As the retail world catches its breath after the whirlwind of the holidays, many managers find their New Year's resolutions include "doing something to improve training." How about you? Now that there's hope for a little down time, does training figure in as one of the projects you hope to accomplish? Very likely, since you've chosen to read this column. Here are some ideas to help you turn your resolutions into actions.

Give Yourself Some Time

First of all, to make any progress toward your goals, make the time to think about, plan, and implement training improvements. In my experience, you'll be more effective if you set aside a little time each week and really stick to it. If you wait for that illusive "free week," it may never come.

Contrary to popular belief, improving your organization's training doesn't require a huge master plan. There are many meaningful changes you can make that don't require a lot of time. They do, however, require implementation and consistent follow-through in order to be effective. Setting aside time to focus on training each week — and then really doing it — will get you much farther in the long run than any one-time shot, no matter how many hours you devote to that initial session. Any consistent investment as small as 30 minutes per week can yield significant results.

Look at Your Bottom Lines

Now that you've set aside some time, where do you start? It is impossible to accomplish everything at once. Training improvements, like any other project, will benefit from some up-front thinking about priorities. Curb your inclination to rush right in and start changing everything. Spend your first weekly training time allotment on determining your top priorities.

At Zingerman's we work toward positive results on three bottom lines — great food, great service and great finance, measuring our progress in each of these areas. As a result, we focus our training, which we call Bottom Line Training, on making a positive bottom-line impact.

Although you may not talk in terms of multiple bottom lines, I think most retail managers would agree that product quality, service quality, and financial results are all top priorities. Look at your organization's current performance in each of those areas. If you feel you're particularly weak in one area, focus there.

What's Bugging You?

Another good place to start is with your gut. That's right. Those feelings down in the pit of your stomach that tell you things are not going the way you know they should. I'm usually most in touch with these feelings when I first wake up in the morning and find myself anxious about some aspect of work. For some managers, it's whatever