It's easy to forget the lessons learned, so we've packaged them up for ourselves and for other businesses to use. Actually, Maggie Bayless did the packaging. She's the managing partner of ZingTrain, a separate consulting business that provides educational material, seminars, and food tours for employees and others. At Zingerman's, four documents are key to defining the comapany's best practices. A training compact spells out knowledge-sharing obligations.
Managers agree to set clear performance benchmarks, provide educational resources, and reward gains.
In return, employees take responsibility for the quality of in-house training. Personal passports give us a sense of who's serious about learning. Some eager people have mastered the most advanced skills by day 30. The training passports are also a portable record of individual achievement. So if a person moves from one Zingerman's business to another, the new manager can eye his passport and know instantly what training he needs.