SmartBlog on Education will shine a light on back-to-school teaching and learning trends during July. In this blog post, educational leadership professor Maria Boeke Mongillo highlights early childhood instructional methods that support student learning at any age. As a professor and professional development facilitator, I have found the teachers who are least concerned about how to implement the Common Core State Standards are early-childhood educators. When I share what the Common Core is asking teachers to do, they often say they have been using those instructional practices forever. So if you are a teacher in an elementary or secondary school grappling with how to embed the Common Core into your classroom, you might benefit from looking down and seeing a few ECE strategies. ECE strategy: All hands on deck Young children learn by doing. Play is the foundation of any good ECE program. Young children lack the ability to think in the abstract, so ECEs provide them with materials to touch and manipulate. One way to facilitate hands-on learning is through interest centers. You select a theme and create task cards for students to complete independently or in groups. You also provide the needed materials for students to complete tasks as independent work or when finished with other assigned work. You can also use learning menus. For this, you design multiple learning activities in a menu format — appetizers, entrees and desserts — and rules for completing them — like two appetizers, one entrée and one dessert. In both strategies, because students are not all completing the same activity at the same time, you are able use a small amount of materials but reach many students. This allows you to give hands-on learning opportunities in addition to written work. ECE strategy: Keeping it real Young children also need concrete examples from their experience on which to base their understanding. So ECEs make sure to use children’s lived experiences and teachable moments to move children forward. Wherever possible, try to make connections to your students’ lives. You can use sports statistics for math lessons, pop music to connect to poetry, and current political and social movements to relate to the past. Additionally, try to frame learning around real world problems. To develop argumentative writing, have students write letters to persuade leaders to make a change. To cultivate money skills, give students a budget and have them plan a school event. Connect students to the community and empower them to solve the problems they see. ECE strategy: Explore, engage, repeat ECEs know that young children delight in repetition and routine. They also know their attention spans are minimal. As a result, they plan for learning in ways that allow children to engage with a concept in multiple ways, multiple times. Often this results in week- or month-long themes that provide a focus for all classroom learning. Try beginning class with a Quick Write or Quick Draw. Give students a half sheet of paper and ask them to write or draw what they remember from the previous day’s lesson or answer a focused question. Collect the papers and pull one to share. You might also have students write weekly or monthly newsletters. Younger students can dictate a class letter that the teacher copies. Older children can write or copy the letters themselves. Middle- and high-school students can be assigned the job of writing newsletters or unit study guides. Ideally, work with colleagues to create cross-curricular thematic units. For instance, if students are studying ancient Egypt in social studies, tie into the volume of a pyramid in math, and the mummification process in science. And do not forget the art, music and PE teachers. You just might hook a kid into learning by tapping into their artistic or athletic sides. ECE strategy: Show me, show me Much of what young children know they can only express verbally or by demonstration. They simply lack the skill to write or draw what they know. As a result, ECEs assess by taking notes or using checklists while watching and interacting with children to record what their students know and are able to do. To implement this, you must first find ways for students to demonstrate what they know and are able to do in a way other than by writing or traditional testing. Then, you need to develop a way to record the level of learning you observe. You can use anecdotal records, where you select one skill and four to six students to observe and take notes on each day. Doing this everyday provides you with weekly notes on every student. You can also create checklists, where every student is listed with the skills you hope to see. As you are watching students work, you can simply check off what you saw or assign a number to express the level of achievement. ECEs work hard to provide the foundation of learning necessary for students to succeed as they progress through their schooling. They may work with little people, but they have big ideas to support student learning at any age. Maria Boeke Mongillo is an assistant professor of educational leadership at Central Connecticut State University. She has taught in school-leader and teacher-preparation programs at multiple universities, and facilitates professional development in elementary schools. She began her career as a first- and second-grade teacher, and is passionate about supporting early childhood teachers and leaders through research and advocacy. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about education. We offer newsletters covering educational leadership, special education and more. Related Posts: How our grading supports inequity, and what we can do about it How you can spend less time and be a more effective leader Agility is today’s most critical leadership competency We all are leaders Boost employee engagement by encouraging collaboration Need ideas for implementing Common Core? Look down originally published by SmartBlogs

(Photo: Flickr user Michael Hicks) The other day I was in the "ethnic" aisle at our local grocery store picking up some items I needed for a few home-cooked meals. As I strolled past the likes of Mission brand tortillas, Ortega salsa, Kikkoman soy sauce and Goya black beans, the experience at the shelf was unremarkable — that is, until I noticed the Taco Bell-branded taco shells. I had seen them before, but this time, for some reason, I paused. I was in the ethnic aisle. And there was Taco Bell. In the ethnic aisle. Taco Bell. Ethnic? I found myself contemplating the whole Venn diagram of ethnicity and branding in U.S. retail today — and the way our thinking around these issues can create unnecessary redundancy and confusion. For starters, this is America. Aren’t we all ethnic? The globalization of cuisine doesn’t just affect major metro areas. This is a national trend. After all, you’re just as likely to find Chipotle in Murfreesboro, Tenn., as in Los Angeles, New York or Chicago. Meanwhile, Chinese and Japanese restaurants are in small-town strip malls across the country. In the U.S., believe it or not, salsa outsells ketchup, and tortillas outsell white bread. Did I not just hear a sriracha reference in "Pitch Perfect 2?" What makes tacos ethnic and spaghetti not ethnic? In a Whole Foods in New York City, seaweed snacks were recently moved from the ethnic aisle to the snack aisle. If seaweed can live next to granola bars, can’t soy sauce live next to hot sauce? This is an issue for retailers, who are creating redundancies around the store. There’s so much pressure on making every square foot count, and yet ethnic aisles include items such as beans, soda, rice, oils and spices. Why double-merchandise? Meat, dairy and produce are grouped, and consumers seem to understand the rationale just fine. Although they come from various climates and geographies around the world, I don’t find it confusing or inconvenient that bananas, corn, mangoes, avocados and apples can all be found in the same area. Greater exposure — bringing more shoppers and families into the mix, regardless of ethnic identity, and exposing them to additional tastes and foods — is the missed opportunity here for brands. In a word, that means missed sales. In my local Shoprite, you can only find sriracha in the ethnic aisle, and yet sriracha is trending. Its sales have skyrocketed in recent years. There’s no doubt that families staying in center store and looking for hot sauce options should see these "ethnic" options as well. Food is universal. It’s a win for brands and retailers. Why would Goya not want to compete with all of the other major brands? Couldn’t Goya win on authenticity and flavor with many audiences outside of its target consumers? Wouldn’t the same be true for other brands stuck in the ethnic aisle? Won’t more exposure lead to more interest, more recipes and more sales? It makes me think of the Apple brand. Apple used to be an exclusive club, meant for creatives and other cool tech folks who wanted to think differently. Well, Apple did a great job of saturating that market and decided that in order to grow, it needed to expand its customer base and appeal to a wider audience. Apple’s ads, messaging and product design went from edgy to functional. The brand transformed itself from an exclusive club into everyone’s favorite Mother’s Day gift. Huge financial growth ensued. Along the same lines, salsa, sriracha and soy sauce should be allowed to rub elbows with the rest of the condiments we all hold dear. Enough with the ethnic-aisle redundancies. Let taco shells and tortillas go head-to-head with bread. Let rice be with rice, olives with olives, spices with spices, and beans with beans. Dave Weinberger is vice president and director of engagement at CBX, the brand agency and retail design consultancy. Reach him at dave@cbx.com and @weinbergerdave. __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing. Related Posts: Are cashews the new almonds? Q&A: FMI CEO Leslie Sarasin on the key takeaways from FMI Connect 2015 Simple ingredients and sweet stories flavor the Fancy Food Show The cultural transformation of the American breakfast Food retailers come together at the dinner table during FMI Connect Who moved my seaweed?: The challenges of merchandising in the ethnic foods aisle originally published by SmartBlogs

Collaboration is a powerful tool organizations can use to boost employee engagement. Working together toward common goals creates a sense of shared values and identity, and strengthens relationships among employees and teams. Those relationships are key to employees’ engagement levels, which is why engagement surveys often include questions about whether people have friends at work or enjoy the people they work with. And working in a collaborative environment can make people more likely to answer "yes." Collaboration improves outcomes Organizations often try to build a culture of collaboration because it can lead to innovation and higher levels of productivity. Exposure to and incorporation of diverse viewpoints as people work enriches the entire environment. In that way, collaboration has a direct effect on the bottom line. It also has an indirect effect on the bottom line by helping with employee engagement. Collaborative work gives employees the opportunity to show up and contribute, because everyone has an opportunity to be heard in that type of environment. People who feel like they have a voice at work are more likely to feel like they belong and are part of the workplace community. In that sense, collaboration helps build a framework of relationships that drives engagement. Encourage collaboration, don’t demand it One of the challenges in creating a collaborative culture is you can’t force it. It’s not something you can make happen by decree. I’ve seen people try, though. For example, a leader or department manager decides collaboration needs to be happening in the organization. She may try to implement a "collaboration hub" or some other management idea meant to foster collaboration. But if people don’t know how to work together and collaborate, these initiatives will fail every time. Employers don’t teach employees how to listen or "play well" with others. But if they want to create an environment of collaboration, they will need to train managers and equip employees with the soft skills needed to do just that. 3 skills that help in collaboration If you’re looking to build a culture of collaboration at your organization, providing education or training in these skills and hiring people who already possess them can help. Listening. People who can listen well to what others say and incorporate others’ viewpoints are essential to building a collaborative culture. Listening with respect and making sure people know they’ve been heard is a strong business skill everyone should work on, but it’s especially important in collaborative teams. Connecting. People who can make connections that others don’t or who can identify hidden opportunities are often useful collaborators. They can help find commonalities among different people, or can take different ideas and forge them into a single new solution that works for the entire team. Collaborative teams also need a point person, who can draw together various ideas and identify a path forward. This person engages the entire group and curates insights and input. People who can make connections do well in this role. Having an open mind. To be effective collaborators, people need to believe that working with others will help them come up better ideas than they could conceive on their own. If people don’t believe their co-workers have the power to create great solutions, they won’t collaborate well. This willingness also comes from company culture, so if you have a hard-charging, independent culture, it may be hard to build a collaborative one. You can’t force people to collaborate. But looking for collaborative skills when you hire, helping employees develop these skills and fostering a culture of collaboration can help you boost both employee engagement and the bottom line. Chris Powell is the CEO of BlackbookHR, a software company on a mission to create more engaged and connected workplaces and communities. He previously served as executive vice president of human resources for Scripps Networks Interactive (HGTV, DIY, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel, et al.), as vice president of human resources for the global financial services company ING, and in various corporate HR roles at Marriott International. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on better recruiting, retention and human resources management. Related Posts: What employee engagement data can tell you about change management How Philips engages employees Unlock employee engagement Managers: Is it possible to automate employee engagement? Are you the wrong type of "engaged" leader? Boost employee engagement by encouraging collaboration originally published by SmartBlogs

SmartBlog on Education will shine a light on back-to-school teaching and learning trends during July. In this blog post, education consultant Joe Feldman tackles grading practices. We pursue equity guided by our most enlightened thinking about teaching and learning: the significance of growth mindsets, the impact of teachers’ implicit biases and the importance of being culturally-responsive to students’ languages and experiences, to name a few. And yet the achievement and opportunity gaps persist. They persist because we leave unaddressed foundational elements of our educational system, elements borne during the Industrial Revolution when schools were designed primarily to sort students (and only a subset of students) based on assumptions of fixed mindsets, incorporation of implicit biases and a single normative conception of students. We will truly make our schools equitable when we confront a cornerstone of that 100-year old design that endures: our grading system. The critical examination of how we grade might seem incidental to equity work and at the same time overwhelming to re-imagine, but improving grading is an incredibly powerful lever for strengthening equity in every element of teaching and learning. For generations, a grade has been a combination of academic information — test and quiz scores — with non-academic information, such as behavior and attendance. Students are awarded points not only for exam questions they correctly answer, but for handing in homework on time, having properly organized notebooks, speaking only after raising their hands, working cooperatively and the list goes on. Because a grade is a composite of so many disparate elements, it becomes impossible to understand what the grade represents. What does a "B" describe? That a student mastered the academic content, but came late every day? That the student understood only some of the standards but completed all assignments on time (even if incorrect) and was kind to classmates? That the student aced major assessments, but was disrespectful? If a single grade can represent entirely different student profiles, then it provides no guidance to an individual student or her caregivers about her achievement or what she needs to do to improve. There are few things more inequitable than hiding the path to success. Inequity is woven into our current grading practices in an even more obvious way: categories included in grades such as "effort," "growth," and "participation" are based entirely on a teacher’s subjective judgments. We know that teachers interpret student behaviors differently based on the student’s race, gender or socioeconomic status. Including these criteria makes a grade more reflective of how the teacher interprets a student’s actions than what the student knows and can do. Perhaps most powerfully, grades significantly influence how a student feels and thinks about a course, a subject and even herself. Many of us can recall how the grades we received affected our self-image about what we were "good at." When groups of students believe that school is not for them, we have to wonder how their grades, and the way they were graded, shapes that identity. Our complicated and inequitable grading system isn’t the fault of teachers; we’ve never had permission or tools to examine our century-old practices with a critical eye. In my 20 years as a teacher and then as a principal, grading never seemed open for discussion. When I commiserated with other teachers and principals, we all knew that how students were being grading wasn’t fair, wasn’t accurate, and didn’t support learning, but challenging it seemed too overwhelming and filled with pitfalls. Grading is rarely included in pre-service, induction, or ongoing professional development — an ironic and embarrassing oversight, considering that grades drive all major decisions about our students, including promotion and graduation. Fortunately, teachers throughout the country are beginning to confront inequitable grading practices. They learn the benefits of grading on a 1-4 scale instead of a 100-point scale, not awarding extra credit, considering the most recent performance as opposed to averaging scores, and separating academic mastery from behaviors and subjective judgments. They consider more effective ways to give feedback, and how using grading as a classroom management strategy ("I’ll subtract points from your final if you misbehave") undercuts learning and undermines equity. In the best situations, teachers learn through collaborative action research; they test alternate grading practices in their classrooms, share results with colleagues and repeat the cycle throughout the year. I now work as a consultant, partnering with schools and districts to make grading more accurate and fair. Teachers are surprised and empowered to find that with more accurate and equitable grading, their students feel a stronger sense of ownership, control and hope — three feelings that traditional grading systems don’t promote — and most importantly, student failure rates decrease dramatically. Discussions about grading, like all conversations about equity, are hard, emotional and confusing. But we need to recognize that our grading practices exert enormous influence on how our students learn, especially those who have been historically underserved. Making our grading practices more accurate and fair is the most important kind of equity work; it confronts a deeply ingrained part of our education system, and transforms it so that instead of perpetuating disparate outcomes, it supports success for every student. Joe Feldman is the CEO of Crescendo Education Group, which partners with schools and districts throughout the country to improve grading and assessment practices. He is a former high-school teacher, principal and district administrator in California, New York City, and Washington, D.C. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about education. We offer newsletters covering educational leadership, special education and more. Related Posts: Need ideas for implementing Common Core? Look down It’s time to throw out grades Path to innovation: Two teacherpreneurs reflect on the journey Use data, tech for stronger PD programs How exam review prepares students for success How our grading supports inequity, and what we can do about it originally published by SmartBlogs

Consider this situation: two women are losing their father to cancer. For Eloise, the journey is terrifying and overwhelming. Her life is so busy, packed with the demands of her job and the challenge of raising three children. She does her best to care for him but she finds it difficult to talk about what is happening inside her. He’s so sick and she doesn’t want to bother him. When her father passes away, she feels a deep sadness and a vast emptiness. For Janis, the journey is one of heartbreak and transformation. She has a full life with a demanding job and the challenge of raising her children but she wants to spend as much time with her dad as possible. She enlists the support of friends and family, and she and her dad face the journey together. They talk often about what death really means to them and when he passes, she feels a deep sadness and also tremendous gratitude for the gift of sharing this important passage. These two stories feature the same situation, yet, the experience of the two women is completely different. And, it perfectly exemplifies how we all have the power to be leaders in our lives. We all have the power to "create our world." Leadership redefined It is for this reason that today’s commonly held definition of leader no longer fits. Say the word "leader" and people automatically think of CEOs, managers and presidents. The word is confined to job titles and roles; thus, it wastes leadership ability that is present throughout an organization, not just at the top. We invite you to turn this one-dimensional, top-down definition on its head and harness the possibility of many rather than relying on the power of one. We invite you to realize that we are all leaders in our lives. We all have the ability to "create our world." Eloise and Janis were in the same situation with the same pressures and responsibilities. However, their responses varied greatly and thus, so did the outcomes. Janis realized her leadership potential in her life. Sadly, Eloise did not. No more follow the leader Everyone has within them the capacity to lead, and any organization or community is most dynamic, most alive and most productive when there is a commitment to leadership at every level. We all share full responsibility for the experience we generate and our sense of personal power and fulfillment is directly commensurate with the level of ownership we are able to take for what happens to and around us. We don’t have much to say about the challenges, hardships and disasters that befall us. This is the stuff that our lives are made of. However, we do have everything to say about how we engage and who we are in the events of our lives, about whether we offer ourselves or put our head in the sand, about whether we seek to serve or give way to blame. We get to choose whether we will take responsibility for the world we are creating. In this way, we have a kind of power that cannot be given to us and therefore cannot be taken away. Life is no longer just happening to us. We are co-creators and we share in the challenge and joy of shaping our world to reflect our own values and purpose. With this new definition of leadership, imagine the untapped potential that lies within your organizations — and your lives. Henry and Karen Kimsey-House are co-founders of the Coaches Training Institute, a global coaching and leadership development organization offering programs in 18 different countries around the world. Their new book, "Co-Active Leadership: Five Ways to Lead," out this September, provides a leadership model that harnesses the possibility of many, rather than relying on the power of one. They are also co-authors of "Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives." Now in its third edition, Co-Active Coaching has been translated into 15 languages and is required reading for coach training programs at colleges and universities around the world. For more information and best practices related to Co-Active Leadership, visit CoActive.com. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better leader and communicator. Related Posts: Getting employees to take accountability Harnessing the power of your hidden leaders The new one-minute manager Helping your team thrive in times of uncertainty 5 attitudes to accelerate leadership development in 2015 We all are leaders originally published by SmartBlogs

A friend who coaches a girls soccer team recently shared, that after a tough loss, one of her 13-year-old players said, "Well, you know coach, you either win or you learn." Yeah! We really are coming to appreciate the value of failure and experiments that don’t go exactly as expected. But it’s not just mistakes that have value; there’s tremendous instructive power in successes as well. In fact, what distinguishes today’s most effective leaders is that they learn from everything and everyone they encounter. They demonstrate learning agility. Why learn agility now? No one will argue that today’s business climate is more dynamic and changeable than ever before. Many have written about the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world within which we must operate. As a result, businesses must become increasingly agile. This demands flexible, highly responsive strategies as well as leaders who are: Expansive, possibility-oriented thinkers, able to recognize patterns, connect dots, and see changing conditions before others do; Collaborative, inclusive, and curious; Able to act quickly, set new direction, make smart but fast decisions, and engage in focused experimentation; and Equally comfortable improvising as necessary and also translating those improvised moves that worked into codified strategies, systems, processes and tools that help the organization continue to evolve. Given this expanded job description, it’s no longer viable for leaders to rely exclusively upon today’s knowledge, skills, approaches, and strategies. In the words of author Marshall Goldsmith, "What got you here won’t get you there." The ability to learn, develop and grow is today’s only sustainable competitive advantage. Hence the importance of learning agility. Learning agility defined While definitions abound, two in particular paint a vivid picture of what learning agility is and why it’s important. According to Bersin & Associates, learning agility is a: "Competency or capability which describes a person’s speed to learn. In most businesses, this skill is considered one of the most important factors in great leadership." Korn/Ferry International builds upon this description, defining learning ability as the: "Ability and willingness to learn from experience, and then apply that learning to perform successfully under new situations." And since both definitions include a focus on competencies, capabilities, and ability, the good news for anyone interested in improving performance and organizational impact is that learning agility can be learned! Any dog can learn new tricks Enhancing learning agility need not be a complicated undertaking. It requires no organizational mandate, initiative, or training. It comes down to a few key practices that leaders at any level can experiment with and implement informally on their own. Want to be a more agile learner? Try the following: Anticipate learning potential in every opportunity. Nearly every encounter, job or assignment contains the possibility for learning if approached with intentionality. Taking even a moment to pause and consider what you might learn from a situation reinforces your intention and enhances your receptivity to new insights that might present themselves. Invite and appreciate feedback. It can frequently take years of hard-knock experience to come to an awareness that others knew from the start. One of the quickest ways to learn — about ourselves or anything else — is from others. But this only works when there’s a genuine appetite and appreciation for feedback from others. Assume new responsibilities, take risks and stretch yourself. Different experiences and tough assignments provide the most fertile ground for testing ideas, approaches, and yourself. Whether you succeed or not, you’ll have more fodder for learning and development when undertaking something novel rather than doing the same old thing. Mine experiences for insights. Each experience offers a wealth of information — if we take the time to reflect on it. But, too frequently, we don’t. "We had the experience but missed the meaning." — T.S. Eliot in "The Dry Salvages" It’s easy to "miss the meaning" when you’re in the proverbial hamster wheel of activity. That’s why building greater learning agility can be as simple as pausing routinely throughout the day to ask: What did I learn from that? Where else can I use this information/skill? So, whether you win or lose, succeed or fail, learning can still be the prize for leaders who possess learning agility. Julie Winkle Giulioni is the author of "Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want," with Bev Kaye. Giulioni has spent the past 25 years improving performance through learning. She consults with organizations to develop and deploy innovative instructional designs and training worldwide. You can learn more about her consulting, speaking and blog at JulieWinkleGiulioni.com. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily career development newsletter. Related Posts: When the growing gets tough Career success 2.0: An evolving definition Battling the bulge: Handling the expectations of too many employees for too few promotions Why mentorship is the gift that keeps on giving Career development begins with care Agility is today’s most critical leadership competency originally published by SmartBlogs

As soon as you walk into Nashville’s Pinewood Social, you’ll notice there are a variety of things to do and places to eat. Will it be a game of bowling today, or a quick dip in the pool, complete with an outdoor menu of mahi mahi tacos and churros? Still more options to choose from: a coffee and tea stand, bocce ball, private karaoke rooms, and a lounge living room. Similarly, when you walk into the Chicago French Market, perhaps you’ll visit an artisan producer festival, take the kids to visit the Easter bunny, sample gourmet truffles, or enjoy a live accordion concert. Both hangout concepts like Pinewood Social and food halls like the Chicago French Market are examples of growing restaurant concepts that are blending food with experience. At hangout concepts, it’s about offering food with the addition of entertainment options to attract a wide range of consumers- whether it’s young families, foodies, or experience-seeking millennials. While hangouts may entice customers with Pac-Man or laser tag, food halls are creating a complete food experience by curating a selection of the area’s best producers and operators under one roof. At The Source in Denver, it’s not just the oak-fired menu at Acorn that might bring foot traffic into the food hall; customers can take a leisurely stroll through the food hall to peruse local gourmet foods and even meet the people responsible for sourcing their next meal. At Boxcar Coffee Roasters, customers are able to watch coffee beans being roasted, and at Meat Head Butcher Shop, customers can see their meat butchered on the spot. Restaurants are no longer solely about the food — now, more than ever, they are social, interactive, and focused on building an experience for customers. Operators across the country are stepping up to grab their share of the segment — whether it’s Chicago-area Emporium Arcade Bar that specializes in its collection of unique games and offers dining options in the form of hosting local food trucks, or a food hall like Eataly that offers a massive Italian marketplace alongside stations that feature freshly-made pasta, wood-fired pizza, or hands-on cooking demonstrations. Multi-concept entertainment emporiums offer a wealth of experiences In Datassential’s May issue of Creative Concepts: Hangouts, we covered the growing segment of restaurant concepts encouraging diners to eat, drink, play, and hang out. Some experiential concepts that combine restaurants and arcades, often referred to as beercades, bring nostalgic arcade games like Mortal Kombat and Pac-Man together with chef-driven menus and stately bar and beverage programs. At Texas-based Barcadia, guests are encouraged to feed their "inner child," both with a variety of arcade games and entertainment options and with creative riffs on classic comfort foods (think fried Oreos and triple cheese grilled cheese sandwiches). And while there are several variations on the bar-arcade hybrid, there are also entertainment centers that combine dining with bowling, bocce ball, laser tag, tennis, and much more. At the newly-opened FTW in Chicago, there’s a wide range of 130-plus arcade and table top games along with mini-golf and a pub grub-focused menu accompanied by a craft beer bar. The newly-remodeled Chicago Athletic Association Hotel is a both a boutique hotel and a dining destination, complete with The Game Room, which offers entertainment options like shuffleboard, billiards, and a menu heavy on updated classics, from the root beer floats with house-made root beer to the duck sausage corn dogs. Even traditional restaurants without bowling alleys or arcade games can enhance the guest experience by adding special events like trivia nights or stocking a few board games. Some operators may tweak their offerings to draw a wider net of consumers - tables set up like workspaces can attract clientele during the work day while afternoon food and drink specials could transition customers into staying for an evening meal. Now more than ever, operators are looking for ways to maximize their presence - whether it’s by adding entertainment options, revamping offerings to encourage more social dining, or collaborating with others to create one-stop-shop food halls. Food halls create a social experience with a little bit of everything There’s been a renewed fascination with food halls, the all-in-one produce and gourmet food shopping destinations that have been around since the early 1900s. In our issue of Creative Concepts: Food Halls, we reported that 65% of consumers have visited or would visit a food hall. There are several high-profile food halls currently in the works - celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain will open an eponymous international street food hall in New York City and the James Beard Public Market, slated for construction in 2016, will be the first food hall in Portland, OR. There are also plenty of well-established and growing food halls across the country. At Brooklyn’s combination food and beer hall, Berg’n, customers can choose from a dozen drafts at the vintage bar, seating at rustic communal tables, as well as fare from food stalls. Ramen Burger, known for its ramen bun-burger creation, offers a variety of other trendy ramen mash-ups at the hall, such as ramen fries and ramen churros. Like many food halls, Berg’n hosts regular social events, such as DJ nights, outdoor flea markets, and "Book Cooks," an interview and tasting series with popular cookbook authors. In addition to being a one-stop-shop for a sampling of a city’s very best food offerings, food halls are also cultivating a social community - both for consumers and operators. While consumers can both peruse gourmet ingredients for at-home cooking as well as sit down for a fast casual bite with friends, business operators can also utilize food halls as a starting point to a full brick-and-mortar, while also learning and collaborating with fellow food stall owners. Restaurants look to evolve beyond food The evolution of restaurants moving towards a more experiential focus can already be seen throughout the industry. At Ponderosa Steakhouse’s spinoff concept, Bo’s Steak & Grill, nearly everything on the menu is made from scratch, with ingredients locally sourced — but that’s only one aspect to the restaurant’s appeal. The fast casual restaurant includes mismatched chairs around a fireplace, red Solo cups, and rustic décor designed to replicate the experience of relaxing at a backyard BBQ. And at up-and-coming supermarkets, customers aren’t just shopping for weekly groceries — they’re perusing food hall-inspired food stations with made-to-order food, learning how to create nutritional meals, grinding their own fresh nut butters, or sipping wine and eating fresh oysters at the in-store restaurant. So whether it’s a sprawling food hall or restaurant/entertainment concept, operators are constantly tweaking their offerings to appeal to a wider range of consumers. As the industry evolves and competition increases, it’s no longer just about serving great food — but also about having a great social atmosphere and creating a complete experience that sets one operator apart from another. Maeve Webster is the senior director of Datassential, a supplier of trends, analysis and concept testing for the food industry. To purchase the Creative Concepts: Food Halls or Creative Concepts: Hangouts TrendSpotting Reports mentioned in this article, contact Webster at 312-655-0596 or maeve@datassential.com __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing.   Related Posts: Beverage trends: Consumers gulp down coffee, natural, seasonal and premium Report: What do food industry operators want and how do they buy? Sneak peek: Appetizer report featuring key consumer insights, trends Datassential: Food trends to watch in 2015 A sneak peak at consumer dessert behavior, trends Gather around: Hangouts, food halls encourage more experiential dining originally published by SmartBlogs

Do leaders work or do they sit back and supervise others? Where you stand on that issue depends upon where you sit in the leader versus led relationship. From the bottom up, leading doesn’t appear to involve much work. The "real" work happens at the bottom of the organization chart - on the front lines. The higher you go in the hierarchy, you’ll see less "real" work and more talk about real work. If you’ve led people, however, you have a different perspective. Once you’ve been in a leadership role, you realize leadership doesn’t magically happen. A leader’s work can be thought of as a range of "leadership services" provided to team members. Providing these services takes time and energy. The same way organizations don’t have unlimited financial capital to invest, leaders don’t have unlimited time and energy to invest in leading their teams. That dynamic requires leaders to be deliberate in their approach to allocating this limited "leadership capital." Methods for allocating leadership capital Because leadership capital is finite, leaders must invest it intelligently. Unfortunately, however, leaders spend their scarce financial capital much more carefully than they do their precious leadership capital. Because the financial capital budgeting process is competitive, a great deal of thought is put into decisions about how to allocate funds. Compared to the budgeting process, the way that leaders decide how to invest their time and energy in their teams can seem arbitrary. Some leaders spread it evenly across their team members to achieve equality. By using this approach, leaders can avoid being seen as "playing favorites." But spreading your leadership capital this way isn’t strategic. Some leaders allocate their leadership capital by giving more to the loudest requestors. This method is all about achieving peace - the "reactive" approach. Instead of proactively determining where to invest their time and energy, they distribute it on a first come, first served basis. Leaders may allocate their leadership capital where it’s easiest to do so - the "path of least resistance" approach. In this case, leaders find it easier to work with certain team members than others. This approach minimizes their stress by limiting their interactions with more difficult team members. That approach is risky. Not only will other team members feel their leader is playing favorites, but the leader isn’t getting the return they should for their leadership capital investment. The person who is fun to work with might be the lowest performer on the team. These three approaches have benefits, but they’re not likely to be the best way to get the most efficient and effective output from the entire team. How are you investing your leadership capital in your team members? The notion of investing in areas generating the highest return applies the same way it does in financial investing. If your organization is deciding between investing in one project that will generate a 5% return and another generates a 15% return, which do you think they’ll invest in? To make this simple, assume the risk and the amount invested are the same. The answer is clear. Your leadership capital works the same way. Determine how much you’re investing, where you’re investing it, and what return you’re receiving. Armed with that knowledge, you can then shift your leadership capital investments into higher return activities. Assessing how you’re investing your leadership capital We recommend using a tool called the Leadership Matrix to see if you’re making wise leadership capital investments. Placing your team members on the Leadership Matrix requires you to compare where you’re investing your leadership capital and the return you receive from those investments in the form of team member results. Their placement on the Leadership Matrix defines a performance pattern that will likely be familiar and requires specific leadership techniques to get the best performance out of that individual. The way to conduct this evaluation is through a simple assessment. The first axis you’ll assess will be the "input" axis - leadership capital invested. Your investment comes in the form of twelve "leadership services" you provide to your team members. Those services are ways you’re investing time, energy, and effort in your team members. They are: Directing — Planning, Prioritizing, and Coordinating Doing — Deciding, Motivating, and Clearing Delivering — Monitoring, Correcting, and Repairing Developing — Training, Coaching, and Promoting Ask yourself if you’re investing a lot or a little in your team member. That dictates their position on the horizontal axis of the Leadership Matrix. The vertical axis is defined by the results they deliver from high to low. The full online version of the assessment is available here. Once you’ve assessed your people, you’ll have a much better sense of the performance patterns you’re dealing with — from Slackers to Rising Stars — and a clearer picture of how you can more effectively invest your limited leadership capital. Mike Figliuolo is the co-author of "Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results" and the author of "One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership." He’s the managing director of thoughtLEADERS, LLC - a leadership development training firm. He regularly writes about leadership on the thoughtLEADERS Blog and writes SmartBrief’s weekly leadership poll question and analysis. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: Break unintentional management patterns and earn discretionary effort How to handle a wayward superstar How leaders can show appreciation for employees during the holidays 5 ways to ruin employee morale Scaling your relationships after a promotion How you can spend less time and be a more effective leader originally published by SmartBlogs

Farmers, food retailers and restaurants serving fresh food have always had to keep an eye on the weather and that’s never been truer than today, as California’s four-year drought drags on and a frigid winter and unseasonably cold spring in the Northeast brings later harvests for many crops. "The season’s about a month behind," said Chelsea Strehse, one of three farm managers at Gravity Hill Farm in Titusville, N.J. "We got started on time with some things in our hoop houses, but the ground was still frozen in March." Photo: Janet Forgrieve This week, the busy market boasted a bounty of fresh from the field fruits and veggies, including husk cherries, heirloom tomatoes, purple peppers and Asian eggplant. Since the cool spring turned to hot, wet summer, different crops are reacting in different ways, she said. "It’s a great year for eggplants. They like it being hotter, and they’re holding up really well." The rain, on the other hand, is making it more challenging to grow the state’s famous tomatoes. Gravity Hill grows more than 20 varieties, four of which are available now. The frequent rain keeps the ground wet, raising the prospects for weeds and the pests and diseases they can bring, she said. Gravity Hill is a 5-acre organic farm and farmer’s market that launched seven years ago. A growing number of the customers are drawn to the seasonal market because they’re seeking out local produce, she said, and many are open to trying exotic new fruits and veggies. Local food sales hit $11.7 billion last year, up from $5 billion in 2008, according to the Agriculture Department, and the the words "local" and "locally" were on 11.3% of U.S. restaurant menus last year, according to Datassential. Local produce is increasingly important to Mad Greens, a Colorado-based fast-casual salad and sandwich concept that just opened its first two eateries outside its home state. With the opening of two new Arizona units, Mad Greens has forged relationships with two local growers and it’s seeking additional ones, said Co-CEO and Chief Strategy Officer Marley Hodgson. "We’ve partnered with Buckeye, Arizona-based Duncan Family Farms and Phoenix-based Abby Lee Farms for some of our produce," he said. "We are indeed searching for additional Arizona partners and we have some exciting prospects in the pipeline." It’s not usually possible or cost-effective for fast-growing chains to source the lion’s share of their produce locally year-round, but Mad Greens is looking to maximize its locally sourced ingredients and products. "We don’t have a specific percentage target, but in the future we would love to be able to say at least 50% of our produce is sourced locally," he said. Local sourcing becomes more important each day that California’s drought drags on. The Golden State grows two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts and a wide range of vegetables including lettuce, carrots, broccoli and asparagus. Drought-related agricultural losses this year are forecast to hit $2.7 billion, according to recent research by the University of California, Davis. The drought hasn’t forced Mad Greens to significantly raise menu prices yet, but that may change, Hodgson said. "The longer this drought continues, the more its impacts will be felt. We’re expecting a 2-4% increase in fruit and vegetable prices this year, but as of right now the true financial impact has yet to be felt," he said. Marley HodgsonPhoto: Mad Greens "We’ve always focused on local sourcing, but a major drought in such a centralized region responsible for growing a large percentage of the nation’s fruits, vegetables and tree nuts emphasizes the importance of local sourcing and trying to minimize the distance our food travels." A focus on local also allows chains to tweak their menus and cater to local tastes when it expands to new markets, and even have some fun with local folk tales, Hodgson said. "[W]ith our Arizona-inspired Doc Holliday salad, the red grapes and the oranges are two ingredients that pay homage to Phoenix’s agriculture roots. The name of course, pays homage to the notorious gambler and gunfighter known best for the O.K. Corral showdown in Tombstone, Arizona." Have weird weather changes or California’s drought put more of a focus on local ingredients at your restaurant? Tell us about it in the comments. __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing. Related Posts: Mad Greens fast-casual chain turns 10 with big plans for growth Locally sourced fast-casual menus feed fresh, transparency, quality trends The next best thing to being vegetarian MAD Greens in Colo. goes the extra mile to offer local goat cheese Growing greens — and hope — in the heart of the city How weather conditions can influence demand for local produce originally published by SmartBlogs

Disrupting. Everyone’s claiming to do it and oh how it’s grabbed our attention lately. In fact, at the moment, it is one of the most used, trendiest and overly stated buzzwords of recent years. To disrupt is to drastically alter or damage something. Applied to business, it translates to change and innovation. While the surge of creativity is fantastic and companies are out disrupting, the real question is who is actually disturbing? You see, there is a difference. Disrupting Although both imply innovation, with varying degrees of radicalism, disrupting is more internally focused. Disruption tends to focus on how an organization can make a great external impact by what it’s doing. You could say that disruption is more assumed by those who are allegedly doing the disrupting. They are out to disrupt through their creations. Although disruption is a huge step toward improvement and breakthroughs, it lacks the provoking factor. Disturbing Disturbing is more externally focused, posing a question at something. To disturb is to challenge, to question, to alter. And, most importantly, to get others out of their comfort zone. Think of taking buckets of every color of paint you can imagine and throwing them all at a white wall. Now, if you chopped up the wall into sections, you would have a variety of unique pieces of art. This is disturbing. The different colors of paint represent ideas and the individual sections we chopped up are innovations and new products. Rather than taking one new idea or product to market and planning on making an impact, disturbing sets a stage to produce endless creativity and modernization in a workplace. Children are great disturbers, they constantly ask "why" and have high levels of curiosity. As we answer their questions and feed them information, we are often forced to ask ourselves the same questions. It’s a nice refresher to ourselves, questioning why we do the things we do. We cold learn a thing or two from them — they disturb without hesitation. The transition. The shift. Why would we want to disturb when disrupting has such a nice ring to it? Because great change not only comes from an exchange of ideas and opposing viewpoints from internal culture, but also from customers and consumers. This is where the transition from disruption to disturbing comes into play. The added element of external engagement will get us closer to what the market truly demands. Uncomfortable? Yes, undoubtedly, but necessary if growth and progress are your goals. Organizations often assume they know best and hired the best minds to create new ideas. Internal assets are in place but they fall short in stirring the pot with the outside world. This lack of external influence could be partly due to the fear of making waves, losing customers, hurting their brand or offending someone. Of course, disturbing has its boundaries, and should never be aggressive or offensive, but we must remember that nothing new is ever created by doing the status quo. Benefits of stirring the pot A prime example of an area to disturb is in complacent organization’s false view of cultural diversity. A mix of ideals is often overlooked by the physical makeup of its people. True diversity seeks a set of thinking and processes that challenge the norm. There is no place for egos in an environment that disturbs and embraces real diversity. When organizations are truly diverse and disturbing internally, there is an added value proposition to customers. Externally speaking, customers and clients need to be challenged by consultants. If you can go in and disturb a client’s mentality in order to achieve a better outcome, you have created meaningful, long-term value. Immediate products and services usually fix immediate problems. There is an opportunity out there for all of us to push boundaries and question stagnant practices without being careless. We need to think of children and their thirst for the question "why?" The same logic applies to working with colleagues and customers. Somewhere, this got lost, and there’s obviously a gap as we mature and become part of the workforce. Corporate culture needs to embrace more curiosity and respectful questioning, as that is where you’ll find the real groundwork for innovation and yes, disrupting. Adam R. Lloyd serves as president and managing partner of Webber Kerr Associates. As an executive talent strategist and consultant, he supports the leadership challenges and objectives of multi-nationals, private equity held and family-owned companies. Lloyd’s experience in CEO and executive appointments spans multiple industry sectors in the Americas and EMEA markets. Prior to founding Webber Kerr, he began his career in financial services and co-founded a midsize human capital services company. He received his a BS, human resources, from Michigan State University. Contact Lloyd on Linkedin, and Webber Kerr on Linkedin and Twitter. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: Why opposing viewpoints should be more important than cultural diversity Chase the rabbit: A design lesson in 3 minutes Unleash your organization’s innovation potential Laying the groundwork for the health system of the future Constructive disruption — why Google, Uber, and AirBnB win Quit the "disrupting" and start "disturbing" originally published by SmartBlogs

It seems every day brings more e-mails, more data, more information to sort through. Your workload increases but you can’t add more hours to the day. How can you push back? Use these innovations to reduce overwork, streamline communication and increase productivity. Take advantage of technology. Make it work for you instead of driving your life. Rein in e-mails. A leading report says businessmen and women receive an average of 121 e-mails a day. And that number will keep growing. Create a system to avoid being buried in the deluge. Allot only a certain amount of time to scan your emails each day. Find a system of deleting, saving, and acting on them that works for you. Consider reducing the number of emails you send out. Who really needs to be CC’d on them? Do you need to "reply all"? At times you can accomplish the work of a dozen e-mails by picking up the phone and speaking directly with the other person. Streamline paperwork. Instead of stacks of paper on your desk, try stacks of files in programs that allow you to share with your team. Use Evernote to keep your thought, drafts, and research under control. Collect group files accessible to all team members in Dropbox. Reduce travel time. Time is money. Instead of spending hours and days in airports, flying or driving, use technology to shorten the distance. Skype or Google Hangout allow up to 10 people to see each other and converse. WebEx and GoToMeeting are great for screen sharing. These techniques will provide efficient use of your time. Contact information. Many people keep contact information in their smartphone making the data dial-ready. Another option is Jibber Jobber. Here you store more than phone numbers or other contact information. You can keep notes about your power lunch, log in relationships and tie the contact to other people or companies. Unplug. Use the ever-present technology to help you take a break and unplug. Look for a parent control apps to limit the time you spend on your phone. Of course, you’ll have the passcode to let you over-ride the cut-off time. But it helps you see how much time you’re spending and insures you unplug for a while. Break Time (Mac) or Workrave (Windows) can assist with taking breaks and managing your schedule on your computer. Also consider turning off e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and other notifications. The constant dings divert your attention from work. When you have periods of no technology, you allow your brain to think more deeply and find better solutions. Technology simplifies our lives in many ways — we scan and digitally file material, we research easier with Google search, and our smartphones with their multitude of applications can speed up work. Rather than have technology encroach into our lives, chose the best parts to streamline your communications. Then free up your time for your most productive work. Joel Garfinkle is recognized as one of the top 50 leadership coaches in the U.S. As an executive coach, he has worked with many of the world’s leading companies, including Google, Amazon, Starbucks, Deloitte, Cisco Systems, and The Ritz-Carlton. He is the author of seven books, including "Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level." More than 10,000 people subscribe to his Fulfillment@Work newsletter. If you sign up, you’ll receive the free e-book "41 Proven Strategies to Get Promoted Now!" If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: Procrastination: What is it costing you? The fear of slowing down Feeling rushed? Break the habit of hurry and overwhelm Soothing stress: Taking time for yourself makes you a better leader Lead better meetings with these 2 conversational paths Be more productive with these tech tips originally published by SmartBlogs

Whether you are working with a small group of students, planning with your colleagues, or training a group of teachers, it can be a challenge to get everybody on the same page — Web page that is. Enter Google Tone. An extension of the Google Chrome browser, Google Tone lets users share URLs using sound. Now getting everyone on the same page as simple as clicking a button. Here’s what you do: Make sure you and your co-collaborators are using Chrome. Visit the Chrome Web Store and search for Google Tone (extension). Click the "Add to Chrome" button and accept the permissions. Once installed you will be taken to a website that will give you a brief overview of the extension. Make sure that the volume on your mic and speakers is set to high. Once you are on the URL page that you would like others to view, click the megaphone icon on the top right corner of the Chrome toolbar. Your device will then emit a short sequence of beeps. Nearby devices receive a clickable notification that will open the same tab. Voila! Now everyone is on the same page. Elizabeth Alaniz is the director of professional development and district initiatives for Weslaco ISD in Weslaco, Texas. From 2012 until 2015, she served Weslaco ISD as the Mathematics Strategist, supervising the math department from pre-kindergarten through AP Calculus. Before coming to Weslaco ISD, Alaniz taught middle school mathematics and Algebra I for Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD and Donna ISD. She promoted student success by participating in a variety of campus tutorial programs and the Region 1 Gear-Up Web-Plus tutoring program. Alaniz holds a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Texas-Pan American and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Texas at Arlington. ***** Tech Tips is a content collaboration between SmartBrief Education and GreyED Solutions. Have a tech tip to share? Contact us at techtips@greyedsolutions.com Miss a Tech Tip? Visit our Tech Tip archive. ***** Related Posts: No Related Posts Tech Tip: Set the Tone for Collaboration originally published by SmartBlogs

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter. How do you handle someone who’s a "squeaky wheel"? I always meet their needs and answer their questions: 7% I ask them to generate solutions before coming to me: 90% I direct them to go to someone else for help: 2% I refuse to meet with them until they have something for review: 1% Make them Self-Sufficient. "Squeaky Wheels" can consume a great deal of your time if you’re not careful. For the vast majority of you, the push toward making them self-sufficient is clear. For those who aren’t taking this approach, I encourage you to look at how you can wean them from the amount of support you provide. If you use basic self-sufficiency building approaches, you should be able to reclaim that time to invest it elsewhere. Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, author of "Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results" and "One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership." Related Posts: How do you deal with "steamrollers" on your team? Leadership : Which is harder: improving a slacker’s performance or getting a high-performer promoted? How do you invest your time and energy in your team members? How effectively do you recruit and hire outstanding talent? How quickly does your organization make decisions? How do you handle someone who’s a "squeaky wheel"? originally published by SmartBlogs

This post is sponsored by HR Metrics and Analytics In an increasingly competitive global market, the quality and effectiveness of your company’s workforce is more critical to business success than ever before. As a result, over the past decade, the HR metrics/analytics discipline has evolved from an efficiency enabler into a strategic powerhouse capable of driving key business objectives such as evidence-based hiring, organizational agility, global expansion and profitability. IQPC knows the importance of HR and has researched the most prolific metrics and analytics from the top HR institutions to gather the measurements that offer the most insight for improving HR processes including increasing efficiency, maximizing employee performance & productivity, staying ahead of market competition and driving organizational effectiveness. Along with the findings, the report combines predictions from other industry experts that detail the top 15 metrics and analytics you’ll need in 2015. The continued use of disparate HR strategies is no longer an option given the volume and variety of data available so, to help you keep track of your progress, we’ve created a Top 5 HR Analytics Goals checklist to help you assess where you are with: Predictive HR analytics Effective, empowered and engaged workforce Connecting the dots from onboarding to exit Improve employee performance with social media analytics Talent acquisition These strategies and solutions will be the focus of our flagship event: The 14th HR Metrics & Analytics Summit  September 2-4, 2015 in Orlando. The Summit features three days of workshops, panel discussions, case studies and networking opportunities lead by industry experts from organizations including Wyndham Worldwide, Express Scripts, Wal-Mart, Amtrack, Fedex and PwC. To learn more about this event, download our agenda.   Related Posts: No Related Posts Resources for Reviewing HR Metrics originally published by SmartBlogs

What stories are told in your organization today? Are you aware of them? Do they reinforce your desired culture or do they inspire undesired actions? Most leaders I speak to don’t pay attention to stories that are told in their company. They should, though, because stories are powerful. Stories direct actions, sometimes subtly, sometimes explicitly. They inspire action over inaction -which can be a good thing, if those stories inspire aligned behavior and considerate interactions. If the wrong stories are being told, people will be drawn to emulate the actions and practices the story reinforces. Here’s an example. One client had a "do whatever it takes" service culture. One day a shipment didn’t go out on time, which meant a customer commitment was at risk. The person that discovered the issue realized that if she got the package to the UPS facility at the airport by 5 p.m., overnight service would get the package to the client’s site by 10 a.m. It would be a day late but not two or three days late. Overnight shipping would cost hundreds of dollars but the package would get there quickly. She prepared the shipment and drove rather madly to arrive at the airport just as the UPS office was closing. They took the package and the client got it the next morning. The company celebrated the employee’s service mindset and her solution by an all-company announcement and a $20 gift card. The message that employees heard wasn’t to ensure shipments go out on time. What they heard was when you miss a shipment and engage in heroic (and expensive) recovery, you’ll be celebrated! A different client had a very cool practice of year-end gifting. If the company exceeded profitability targets, full-time employees could gift as much as $1,000 to the charity of their choice. One employee decided to give his full allotment to a local nonprofit animal shelter where he and his wife had adopted a kitten a year before. He went to their office one rainy afternoon and offered the check to the receptionist. She looked at the check and burst into tears! She asked him to stay for a minute while she scurried into the hallway. Us men don’t know what to do when a woman cries. Mostly we’re tempted to run away. He was about to sneak out and head home when four women came into the lobby, all sniffling. The group grabbed him in a big hug. The executive director, who was holding the check, thanked him for his gift. She told him the shelter was having a cash-flow issue. They were meeting that very moment to figure out how to buy food for their animals — because they would have run out within two days. The story was widely shared. The message that employees heard was that saving money enabled local charities to do more great work for people in their communities. They worked hard and didn’t miss profitability targets for the following five years. How can leaders learn what stories are being told? Wander around and engage with employees. They must listen more than they talk. They must ask what’s going well and what’s not - and ask for examples. These interactions will expose some of the stories that are prevalent in their workplace. Leaders can also be proactive about stories they tell. They can discover stories of desired values and behaviors, and tell those, often. Those powerful stories will reinforce their desired culture. What do you think? What would a time analysis show in your current work and life responsibilities? What small changes will make the most positive impact for you and your team and family? Share your thoughts about this post/podcast in the comments section below. Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter. Subscribers enjoy free resources including a preview of my latest book, The Culture Engine, which helps leaders grow their business, engagement, and service with an organizational constitution. Podcast - Listen to this post now by clicking the podcast link at left. Subscribe via RSS or iTunes. The music heard on these podcasts is from one of my songs, "Heartfelt," copyright © 2005-2015 Chris Edmonds Music (ASCAP). I play all instruments on these recordings. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: Want front-line leaders and players to make great decisions? Clear the fog Don’t settle for a less-than-engaging work environment S. Chris Edmonds, on why culture matters What is your organization’s social impact? Be intentional about workplace inspiration How stories can reinforce the culture you want originally published by SmartBlogs

The Q2 2015 Restaurant Social Media Index rankings are in! Last quarter, Panera Bread took No. 1 for the Top 25 National Restaurant Brands of Q1 2015. This month, the artificial-ban brand falls to No. 4, and is replaced by Chick-fil-A. Check out the Top 10 list below, where we also delve deeper into the Top 3. What caused the chicken chain to be on top? And what other players have entered the national field of top brands? How it works The RSMI, owned by digital agency DigitalCoCo, is a social media index with domain expertise that tracks five main elements — influence, sentiment, engagement, location-based actions and mobile — across 17 social media platforms. Currently, the Index tracks more than 188K restaurant industry keywords and more than 127M U.S. social restaurant consumers in over 430K locations. Learn more about how the Index works. Top 10 Restaurant Brands: Q2 2015 Chick-fil-A: Chick-fil-A is one of those brands people seem to either love or hate. The chicken chain has been very vocal in the past about its conservative beliefs, but clearly, there’s been more positive brand buzz in Q2 than not considering the restaurant’s No. 1 position. Chick-fil-A also kicked off a strong Q3 with a lot of talk about its 11th Annual Cow Appreciation Day, where customers could score free food on July 14 if they dressed up like a cow. At the end of Q1, Chick-fil-A rolled out a new Frosted Lemonade drink, a combination of fresh-squeezed lemonade and CFA’s Ice Dream soft serve (a once-secret mashup employees concocted for themselves). This new item rolled over into Q2 buzz. (A CFA store in Atlanta even filmed a rap video about it.) Other popular menu items in Q2 include Chick-fil-A’s grilled chicken nuggets, a peach milkshake and a grilled market salad. The brand has also been pushing a lot of expert-authored pieces on its Inside Chick-fil-A microsite, a digital native content platform for the brand, housing pieces like millennial leadership tips and outdoor entertaining tips. Social Score: 449.09 | Twitter followers: 577K | Instagram followers: 227K | Facebook fans: 7.3M Sonic Drive-In: June saw a lot of push for Sonic beverages with its "Celebrate Summer" campaign. The drive-in brand offered a deal on energy drinks before 10 a.m., half-off shakes after 8 p.m., and 79-cent slushes on June 24. At the beginning of June, NBA player Kevin Durant was featured in a commercial spot for Sonic’s new candy slushes. More mainstream media has been buzzing about Sonic, too, because it’s selling Kevin Durant’s actual slush — the one he drank out of: the candy, the straw and the liquid, all sold separately. In May, Sonic offered a corn dog deal (for 50 cents) to celebrate National End of School Day, and half-price cheeseburgers all day on April 15 for Tax Day. In Q2, the brand also rolled out mobile games for kids to entertain themselves with. The combination of celebrity, new funky flavors and tons of deals puts Sonic at No. 2. Social Score: 446.74 | Twitter followers: 234K | Instagram followers: 26.2K | Facebook fans: 3.1M Chipotle: In Q2, Chipotle reaffirmed its brand message by announcing the removal of all GMOs throughout its ingredient list. Chipotle became the first national restaurant company to use only non-GMO ingredients. Also in Q2, the fast-casual chain announced a scholarship program where middle school and high school students could submit an essay about a memorable food experience. Ten winners would be granted a $20K scholarship and have their essays featured on cups and bags in Chipotle restaurants. The combination of sustainable practices and healthfulness, focus on community, and direct consumer engagement and interaction make Chipotle a strong Top 3 competitor. Social Score: 446.11 | Twitter followers: 670K | Instagram followers: 203K | Facebook fans: 2.5M Panera Bread Wendy’s Taco Bell Buffalo Wild Wings Firehouse Subs Shake Shack In-N-Out Burger Made up of four QSRs, four fast casuals and two casual dining restaurants, Q2’s Top 10 proves that, when it comes to national brands on top, there’s a little something for everyone. View the full Top 25 National Brands on Foodable here, and submit your brand into the Index. Jessica Bryant is the Managing Editor at Foodable WebTV Network, DigitalCoCo’s sister company. __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing. Related Posts: McDonald’s falls from the Top 10 in Foodable’s Most Loved Restaurant Brands Chipotle falls out of the Top 10 RSMI Restaurant Brands for the first time in a year 2 big brands fall off RSMI Top 10 rankings, replaced by new contenders The race is on to become the "Chipotle of pizza" Q2 top social restaurant brands rocking mobile and location Chick-fil-A replaces Panera Bread at No. 1 spot in Q2 top national brands originally published by SmartBlogs

SmartBlog on Education will shine a light on back-to-school teaching and learning trends during July. In this blog post, Jim Dillon, director of the Center for Leadership and Bullying Prevention and a former educator and school administrator, offers 10 ways to make the distinction between "learning" and "performing" in the classroom. It can happen innocently on the first day of kindergarten when the teacher says to the class, "Who can tell me the … ?" and then calls on one student to answer the question. Walk into most classrooms from kindergarten to college and it is likely that you will still hear the same "Who can tell me?" question uttered by the teacher. There is nothing inherently wrong with that question. The problem resides in the context in which the question is asked and what happens in the minds and hearts of those who hear it. Let’s analyze what is going on in that typical teacher-student interaction: The person in authority holds the answer to the question by virtue of the fact that she is the person in charge. Some students — those with their hands up — think they know the answer that the teacher is looking for. These students want to answer the question publicly to please the teacher and gain a public approval of what they know. Students learn that already having the answer or quickly retrieving in their mind is preferable to taking the time to think about it. Most tests or assessments — regardless of their intent — can be perceived by students as variations of that typical scenario triggered by the "Who can tell me?" question. Students learn that there are "real" consequences to having the right answer or not having it. Getting the right answer and the fear of not getting it is sadly too much of a hallmark of most schools. So it might be a nice idea to tell students not to worry about mistakes or to embrace failure as part of the learning process, but it would be tantamount to telling someone performing their end of the year music recital not to worry about wrong notes — much, much easier said than done! It would also be a disservice to tell them not to worry because their goal should be to perform as flawlessly as possible to demonstrate their competence to others. Striving for excellence and high-level competence is and should be part of a positive motivation for learning. What’s the solution to this conundrum of striving for excellence and still embracing mistakes and "failure"? It’s making the distinction between learning and performing: a distinction that is either blurred or forgotten in most schools. Performing is about displaying competence; learning is about gaining competence. Learning and performing are part of the process of getting the "right answer," gaining competence and the good feeling that comes with achieving it. A little anxiety can boost performance when someone is already competent and has some confidence. Anxiety also hinders gaining competence, depresses learning and drains it of its intrinsic value. Most schools, however, leave the learning part out of the equation, so the version of learning students experience is really akin to performing. Many students are asked to demonstrate competence before they are competent. The expected "right" answer seems to be dangled over their heads by those in authority. Thinking that the right answer is expected by those in authority to gain their approval is what creates students who appear to be unmotivated to learn. They are really motivated to avoid publicly failing and not gaining the approval of adults and consequently their peers. Educators can make the distinction between learning and performing clearer and thereby lessen the tyranny of the right answer by: Saying what you mean: Most teachers ask a question in order to get students to think. They don’t want just one student to give them the right answer. Changing a "Who can tell me?" type of phrasing into "Take some time to think about … "; or "Share your thinking" can more accurately convey clear expectations to students. Explicitly state that the expectation is to try — not to get the right answer. Simply acknowledging the difficulty of a task and stating that trying to do it is what is most important, can lessen the likelihood that students who doubt their competence will refrain from trying. Tell stories of when you struggled and what went on in your mind. Every learning experience is really the story of how someone went from novice to expert. Without hearing this story, students often think that gaining competence came easily for the person. They need to hear how competence emerged from struggle. Be aware of the influence that gaining your approval has on the learning process. It is a nice feeling to gain approval but the risk of not getting it can inject fear and anxiety into the learning process for students. Help students see and understand that learning is not about pleasing you, but about gaining knowledge and skills for themselves. Make sure learning is never a race or competition among peers. Winning may be a part of performing, but it is a scarce commodity. Learning isn’t. Learning anything should be available and achievable for all. Build strong social support among learners. People who feel connected and supported take more risks, try harder and learn better than people who feel alone. Any time invested in strengthening connections among students pays dividends. Do your best to minimize time as variable for success. It is very difficult to remove time as criteria for success. Be upfront with students about this, but where you can provide as much flexibility time wise for gaining competence. Learn with your students. It is impossible to remove the greater knowledge you have about topics and life in general compared to your students. Find topics or questions that you can pursue together on a more even playing field and sharing a similar learning journey. Make sure MVP is part of all learning. Keep all learning in the context of meaning, value and purpose. If it is not readily apparent, then talk about it and discover it together. This is the best antidote to avoid the please the teacher nature of school. Balance a recital experience, with a karaoke experience. Just as karaoke can be a way to experience music with mistakes and goof ups being part of the fun, you can help students discover the fun of playing around with ideas, trying and starting over and sharing some laughs along the way with others as part of the learning experience. Fun and laughter is probably the best indicator that you have removed the tyranny of the right answer from the learning environment. Jim Dillon (@dillon_jim) has been an educator for over 35 years including 20 as a school administrator. He is currently the director of the Center for Leadership and Bullying Prevention. He has written three books, Peaceful School Bus (Hazelden), No Place for Bullying (Corwin) and Reframing Bullying Prevention to Build Stronger School Communities (Corwin). He writes a blog at www.jim-dillon.com. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about education. We offer newsletters covering educational leadership, special education and more. Related Posts: How our grading supports inequity, and what we can do about it Retreat to advance Leading with our own hearts and minds The perfect scenario? Need ideas for implementing Common Core? Look down The tyranny of the "right" answer originally published by SmartBlogs

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." ~ Henry Ford One way for leaders to develop a strong bond with their people is to roll up their sleeves and get to work. Not just their own work, but the work of their direct reports, as well as their reports’ reports. Take time to sit in various offices and seats within the organization and seek to develop new skills and make connections on different levels. Ask about existing challenges within the company and develop empathy for those who are tasked to address them regularly. Brainstorm with staff about how best to address these issues to optimize performance. By bringing yourself down to your people, you will gain their admiration as someone who really seeks to know their situations and improve them. Of course, another significant benefit is the knowledge that you will learn more about parts of the company about which you are presently not too familiar. Your newfound perspective will add insight to decision-making processes large and small. Another, more sustainable approach to bonding with employees is to actively connect with them on a regular basis. Hewlett-Packard founders William Hewlett and David Packard used a strategy that has become known as MBWA, or "management by wandering around." As its name implies, MBWA requires regular walking throughout the workplace. It offers many benefits to leaders and their employees, such as: Awareness. Walking around can give you a better understanding of the functions and processes around you. This could be crucial as you begin the decision-making process and want to be able to keep all important information under consideration. Relationship building. Your workers will start to feel that you care about what they do and who they are and will come to appreciate you for it. It will also raise workplace morale, knowing that you are committed to them and their success. Approachability. The more that you are around, the more that people begin to view you as another person and not simply a distant boss. That, coupled with your proximity, makes it likelier that they’ll tell you what’s really going on. You may learn about issues before they become real problems. New ideas. Oftentimes, creative thoughts occur "in the moment" and not at formal meetings. Your presence promotes casual discussions, so people will more likely feel free to come to you with their ideas. In order to achieve this, you must use the walk through strategically. Here are some other tips can help you get the most from your strolls: Stroll calmly. You want to get around but should not convey hurriedness. Staffers should feel that you’re happy to be there and that this was your intended destination. Project a sense of calm and relaxedness as you interact and you will get people to open up and respond naturally. Ask for feedback and be a good listener. Let everyone know that you want to hear what they have to say in order to improve the workplace and improve performance. Hold back as much as possible from saying what you think, at least for now. Be judicious in your observations. If you notice something positive, offer a compliment. If you see something that concerns you, bite your tongue and talk to the person later, in private. Use your time wisely. Don’t spend a disproportionate amount of time in one particular area. Make sure to talk with different people on different levels within the organization. Everyone should feel you to be approachable and genuinely interested in them. Though a leader’s direct involvement can really energize her team or company, she should be careful not to become too involved. This will cheapen the effect and make people feel as if you are watching them closely. I made that mistake once at the beginning of my principal tenure. I would regularly come out to join staffers who managed the carpool line, thinking that such involvement would help the teachers and offer me another opportunity to engage with parents and students. All of that was fine, until I started taking over the process and stepping on some toes as I did. I got the hint when my associate principal told me that it was "beneath me" to be out there barking carpool instructions. That was her nice way of saying that I had gone a bit too far and had worn out my welcome. Leaders have to walk a fine line in the workplace. On the one hand, people want them to be interested and involved. On the other hand, they can easily wear out their welcome by becoming meddlesome and "stealing" the process from those who were tasked to complete it. So long as leaders take the necessary measures to remain in others’ good graces, they will find that their time in the trenches will be time very well spent. Naphtali Hoff (@impactfulcoach) became an executive coach and consultant following a 15 year career as an educator and school administrator. Read his blog at impactfulcoaching.com/blog. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: Make your feedback personal What would your best boss do today? Got office sharks? Here’s how to outswim them New leaders, build strong relationships Tough is easy Deepening the workplace bond originally published by SmartBlogs

The Young Entrepreneur Council is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. Read previous SmartBlogs posts by YEC. If you enjoy this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our newsletters on small business and entrepreneurialism. Q. What unique perk does your company offer that you think helps attract the best talent? 1. Days off for volunteering At ZinePak, we offer all our full-time employees two or more paid days off per year to volunteer for any charity he or she chooses. It’s a great way to help our employees give back to the community and support causes they care about. — Brittany Hodak, ZinePak 2. Unlimited paid time off We have an unlimited PTO policy because we believe in hiring talented, driven individuals and allowing them to work autonomously. We always have the expectation that people will meet their goals, and if they can do so while taking a two-week trip to Europe, then we should support them in doing so. This attracts the type of people who are intrinsically motivated and appreciate being trusted. — Kelsey Meyer, Influence & Co. 3. A mentor list We have a list of people we call mentors who specialize in different things. We allow our team members to reach out to those mentors if they want to learn a new skill, hobby or talent. Our mentors can even teach you how to drive a manual transmission! — Adam Grant, Campus Commandos 4. Flexible workplaces and tools Our employees can complete 99% of their individual tasks out of the office and on any device. This way when they have to take personal time, they still have the tools to continue being productive. Flexible schedules and unlimited PTO don’t mean much if employees have to worry about doing double the work just to catch up. — Ivan Matkovic, Spendgo 5. Food trucks Every week, we have a different food truck come to the office and feed the team. Bringing in catering got everyone to the same table to make their plate, but people inevitably ended up back at their desks eating by themselves. With food trucks, everyone hangs out outside together while we order and wait for our food — plus the excitement of the food truck arriving each time is unparalleled. — Ross Resnick, Roaming Hunger 6. The opportunity to work for a certified B Corp Many potential hires are attracted to the fact that Singlebrook is a certified B Corp. It means that we live our values through paid volunteer programs, open book management, community events, sustainability programs and more. — Elisa Miller-Out, Singlebrook 7. A work environment where people feel valued Perks are often misunderstood as the path to a great place to work. Before perks, the first key component is building a desirable work environment where people feel valued and can do meaningful work. With that in mind we offer unlimited vacation, free snacks, phenomenal office space, new Apple gear, great speakers and more. However, none of that matters unless you get the first part squared away. — Joseph Walla, HelloSign 8. Trust and freedom At Cyberclick, we give everyone the ability to choose their working hours along with vacation days. We don’t tally up every day you have taken off or came in late; we want you to decide your best schedule to get your work done. This trusting environment is one of the ways we are able to attract passionate people into our team who don’t need a set schedule to find the motivation to come into work. — David Tomas, Cyberclick 9. A relaxed environment We offer a relaxed environment with our employees being able to structure their work load however they feel is best. We do not believe in micromanaging our employees. Combine that with the freedom to wear casual clothes and be comfortable, we create an environment for ideas to flow freely. — Phil Laboon, Eyeflow Internet Marketing Related Posts: How can leaders can assess the work readiness of new graduates? How do you efficiently onboard new employees? When do you let an underperforming employee go? What resources can help entrepreneurs be better managers? Common mistakes leaders make during periods of fast growth What unique perk does your company offer? originally published by SmartBlogs

Path to Workforce is SmartBrief Education’s vision of college and career readiness, encompassing K-12, adult learners, career changers, non-traditional students and those who forgo a traditional four-year college experience. Stay tuned for ongoing #Path2W coverage, including model programs, expert insights and reader feedback. Nearly every single one of us at some point or another will have considered trying to learn a new language, but the reality is that most of us are stuck in our ways and rely solely on the use of our native language. Becoming bilingual has countless benefits; most notably, it can enhance your career prospects and help bring multicultural societies closer together. Let’s explore the importance of learning foreign languages and how you can take the initial steps to becoming bilingual. Enhance your career prospects It is proven that being bilingual has positive effects on your cognitive abilities. For example, studies have shown that bilingual individuals are able to multitask and process information far more effectively than monolingual individuals. You can imagine how much more effectively you’ll be able to work with enhanced abilities in such areas and this will only help to enhance you career prospects. Studying abroad is something that many university students consider. Taking a year to live and study in a different culture can make you a well-rounded individual. Not only will it help to improve your employment prospects, but also the cognitive benefits that we mentioned previously might just be the difference in a degree grade at the of your course. Many larger international organizations communicate with people all over the world. You may be working in marketing in London, and need to speak to a Spanish-speaking sales person. Jobs at multinational organizations are hard to come by, so being bilingual will most certainly enhance your chances of getting a job in such environments. These are just a couple of ways that being bilingual can enhance your career prospects, here are a few more ways that learning a second language can further your career. Become a greater part of society Society and culture across the world is more diverse than ever. Gone are the days where countries solely inhabited by people whose families had lived there for generations, now the world is far more accessible. Consequently, there are countless multicultural communities all over the globe. Immigration can present countless benefits to society, including economic gains, more skilled labor in needed sectors and much more. If you live in an area that has a number of migrants, learning their language will help you to become a far greater part of society. By learning a language it will allow society to become more diverse and for every culture to be integrated in their community. How you can learn a new language Learning a new language takes time, but thankfully it is extremely easy to find yourself an opportunity to take a course. There are countless schools that teach English, and you’ll also be able to learn online if you want to learn on your own time. However, most people tend to find the classroom environment more effective. So there you have it. These benefits of learning a new language are just the tip of the iceberg. Becoming a bilingual individual can open countless doors and bring our multicultural society far closer together, so we urge you to take those next steps to broaden your horizons. Helen Wallis works at an English school in London, working with foreign students to enhance their English-language skills. Helen has a passion for foreign languages, which has allowed her to teach the English language for over 15 years. She enjoys writing about her past experiences in teaching and showing others the many joys of learning a new language. Related Posts: Student success: A new definition for the U.S. Senate 5 new realities in education CTE: Creating opportunities for students Why we shouldn’t glorify billionaires who dropped out of school How is the U.S. faring in the great #skillsrace? Embrace our multicultural society by learning another language originally published by SmartBlogs

What are the most important three words for any relationship between a manager and employee? No, it’s not "I love you." Now that would be inappropriate, although not everyone would agree with that opinion. Love their jobs, yes. Love their managers or employees? Eew! No, the most important three little words are: "I trust you." Trust is the foundation that a positive manager-employee relationship is built on. The absence of trust leads to micromanagement, fear, risk-aversion, backstabbing, destructive rumors, a lack of innovation, mistakes, and a lack of engagement. What does trust look like? It’s all in the eye of the beholder, but here’s a starter list from both the manager’s and employee’s perspective: When an employee says "I trust you" to their manager, it means: When I share good news and accomplishments with you, you will let your boss and others know. You won’t claim credit for my accomplishments. When I admit a weakness, you will work with me to improve myself, not hold it against me on my performance review. I can come to you when I make a mistake. You’ll treat it as a learning opportunity, but also hold me accountable when needed. You’ll look me in the eye and give me honest, fair, direct feedback when I need it. You won’t sugarcoat it. I’ll know where I stand with you and won’t be blindsided during my performance review. You won’t ignore performance issues - my own, as well as the rest of my co-workers. If I see a co-worker slacking off, I’ll assume you are dealing with it. If I have to bring it to your attention, I know you’ll look into it and deal with it fairly. You won’t "shoot the messenger" if I bring a problem to your attention. You’ll do what you say you’re going to do. I won’t have to remind you more than once. You’ll look out for my best interests. Yes, I know you have a business to run and have to make tough decisions, but you will do whatever you can to make sure I’m treated fairly and with respect. You’ll tell the truth and not hold back critical information. I can discuss my career aspirations with you and you won’t hold it against me. When a manager says "I trust you" to their employee, it means: When I ask you to do something, I know you’ll do it. I won’t have to follow-up, inspect, ask again, etc… You’ll tell me when you think I’m wrong or about to make a stupid mistake. You won’t throw me under the bus in front of my boss, or behind my back. If you have a problem with me, you’ll come to me first to discuss it. When I ask you to do something and you say you can’t, I’ll know you have good reasons. When we discuss your career aspirations, you’ll be open and honest with me so that I can support you. I shouldn’t be blindsided when you give me your notice. You won’t cover up mistakes. If you screw up, you’ll admit it, take ownership, and focus on solving the problem. You’ll give me a heads up regarding any urgent issues or problems so that I’m appropriately informed and not surprised when I hear about it from others. If your workload slows down, you’ll let me know, or offer to help your teammates with theirs. When I ask you how long something will take, you’ll give me a realistic and honest estimate. No padding. When you complement me, I’ll know it’s sincere. No sucking up. What would you add to the list? What does "I trust you" mean to you? Dan McCarthy is the director of Executive Development Programs at the University of New Hampshire and runs the Management & Leadership channel of About.com. He writes the award-winning leadership development blog Great Leadership and is consistently ranked as one of the top digital influencers in leadership and talent management. He’s a regular contributor to SmartBrief and a member of the SmartBrief on Workforce Advisory Board. E-mail McCarthy. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better leader and communicator. Related Posts: Showing empathy in your leadership Beware of your leadership strengths How to plan a great off-site meeting What to get your boss for a holiday gift 10 ways to take charge of your leadership development 3 little words originally published by SmartBlogs

Learning management systems do not look like they did five or 10 years ago. The evolving nature of LMS has created a range of options for K-12 schools, colleges and universities and even corporations seeking to use technology in teaching and learning. So what is the next generation LMS? Higher education nonprofit EDUCAUSE in a recent white paper dubbed the next iteration of LMS in higher education the "next generation digital learning environment" — or NGDLE. The authors note that it will not be a "single chuck of code;" but rather will include five core functionalities: interoperability and integration, personalization, analytics, advising, and learning assessment, collaboration, accessibility and universal design. This gives us — and our readers — a jumping off point for the discussion. In the coming months, SmartBrief will collect ideas from K-12, higher education and beyond to help facilitate a conversation about these evolving digital learning platforms. Join the conversation in the comments section below by telling us how you have you seen LMS change in the past five, 10 years. And if not "LMS," what are you calling it? In the meantime, here’s a look at some of our recently curated news about LMS: Student describes how tech has improved higher education Technology has enhanced the college learning experience, according to Lindsey Bennett, a senior at Vanderbilt University. In this commentary, she describes how learning management systems, mobile technology and more have improved higher education. Choosing the best LMS Schools have more choices than ever when it comes to selecting a learning management system. This article highlights two schools and how they chose their systems. It also includes four features school leaders should look for when adopting an LMS. Do all districts need to invest in an LMS? A growing number of school districts are finding that the use of some form of learning management system is helping to make online access of digital resources easier for students and teachers. This article offers some tips and advice for districts that are interested in adopting their own LMS. Report: Bring standardization to higher-ed learning management systems Higher-education learning management systems should be based on common specifications, so different software can work together, according to a paper from the Educause Learning Initiative. Such a system, the authors contend, would allow faculty to use features from different vendors seamlessly and allow for better collaboration and flexibility. More districts are moving to the cloud, survey shows More school districts in the U.S. are using cloud-based services, according to a recent Consortium of School Networking survey. Findings show productivity-based tools, such as Google Apps for Education, are the most popular, followed by learning management and student information systems. What one university learned from moving to the cloud Montclair State University has adopted a cloud-based solution for students’ email and the school’s learning management system. In this commentary, Jeff Giacobbe, associate vice president of enterprise technology services, describes what the university has learned from the transition to the cloud. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about education. We offer newsletters covering educational leadership, special education and more.     Related Posts: No Related Posts Is "LMS" in need of an extreme makeover? originally published by SmartBlogs

(Photo: Flickr user Kenny Louie) From big chains like Peet’s and Starbucks to smaller regional players like D.C.’s Dolcezza, coffee makers are helping customers cool off with cold brew iced coffee this summer. Although cold brew coffee isn’t a new concept, it’s a market trend that is getting a lot of attention and gaining in popularity — and it seems to be a trend that could stick. Cold brew coffee is different from traditional iced coffee in that it is made with cool water, rather than by brewing hot coffee and pouring it over ice to cool it off, and making cold brew coffee is a much more labor-intensive process. In fact, Tech Times reported that it took Starbucks two years to come up with a satisfactory process for making the cold brew coffee that the chain will start serving at all of its locations in North America. For Brett Holmes, a partner of cold brew coffee maker Strother’s Brewed Cold, the new-found cold brew coffee craze has been a long time coming. Strother’s has been working with cold brew coffee for decades, and according to Holmes, the market has been "long overdue" for cold brew coffee products. "Cold brewed coffee creates a flavor and taste that mainstream consumers are only now starting to understand, appreciate and embrace — whether served steaming hot or iced cold. And people love it," he said. Strother’s produces Coffee Juice, a ready-to-drink beverage that infuses cold brew coffee, roasted chicory root and juiced blueberries. And the company will unveil Coffee Juice X later this year, a bottled triple-strength cold brewed coffee extract that is made with a 50-year-old family recipe. "We’re…confident that anyone who loves freshly made cold brewed coffee, served straight up or diluted with water or milk, will absolutely love this stuff," Holmes said of Coffee Juice X. Holmes’ instincts appear to be spot-on, with more than 40% of American adults consuming coffee on any given day, according to a recent report from Datassential. According to the report, brewed coffee is the most-consumed beverage after tap water, with specialty and iced coffees continuing to gain in popularity. Cold brew coffee, in particular, is rapidly making its way onto more menus, the report found, with other iced coffees varieties like Thai iced coffee and green coffee following closely behind. "Iced coffee, which is not as widely offered as hot brewed coffee, is also a varied category that can offer operators check-boosting opportunities," the report said. A big part of the appeal of cold brew coffee is the taste, according to the Tech Times piece. While traditional iced coffees often have a bitter flavor profile, cold brew coffee is smooth with a chocolate flavor. "Iced coffee and espresso beverages have a stronger, roastier flavor with a bit of nuttiness that comes from brewing with hot water. Our Cold Brew is smooth and rich, it’s very refreshing with chocolate and light citrus notes," Starbucks Research and Development team’s Michelle Sundquist said. And Starbucks is not the only company taking advantage of the cold brew coffee trend. Imbibe magazine picked the 13 best cold brew coffee offerings for the summer, and the list included players from subscription service Bear State’s single-origin cold brew, which is made through a 24-hour steeping process, to bottles of Secret Squirrel’s ready-to-drink or concentrated cold brew coffee offerings, which lend themselves well to coffee cocktails and allow consumers to dilute the beverages to their personal tastes. Strother’s will continue innovating and capitalizing on the cold brew coffee trend, Holmes said, and the company is keeping an eye on other trends in the coffee segment, including bottled cold brewed coffee extract, nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee, hop-infused cold brew coffee and serving cold brew coffee hot. __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing. Related Posts: Beverage trends: Consumers gulp down coffee, natural, seasonal and premium Uncovering food and beverage opportunities in a new era of premium Restaurants brew solutions to cope with rising coffee prices Creating the next "it" food: The rise of limited time offerings All the coffee in China Why summertime calls for a cold one — cold brew coffee, that is originally published by SmartBlogs

Conciliators make the world go around. Or at least function more smoothly. Conciliators have the ability to get people to get along with one another not merely as compromisers but as collaborators. Conciliation also works when things are broken. Then they become those who can reconcile aggrieved parties. "The main object of conciliation," said Confucius, "lies in reaching a solution to a case based upon morals and with a warm heart." Morality underscores the principle to getting people to work together for the right reasons. Warm-heartedness makes people feel good about coming together. A leader who can pull off such an endeavor is one that people want to follow, and remember. Click here to view the embedded video.   John Baldoni is chair of leadership development at N2Growth, is an internationally recognized leadership educator and executive coach. In 2014, Trust Across America named him to its list of top 100 most trustworthy business experts. Also in 2014, Inc.com named Baldoni to its list of top 100 leadership experts, and Global Gurus ranked him No. 11 on its list of global leadership experts. Baldoni is the author of more than a dozen books, including his newest, "MOXIE: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership." If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: Put your personality into your communications The art of the sound bite Communicating in a crisis Hit the road, Jack How to manage change the right way Learn to be a conciliator originally published by SmartBlogs