The “Not in the Books” Bundle

We teach Bottom Line Change, our recipe for effective organizational change, in several of our 2-day seminars. But never before had we released it in print. Despite being crucial to the success of just about any enterprise, effective organizational change rarely wins headlines. When change management is done well, it goes almost unnoticed. When it fails, the effects can be spectacular—million dollar mishaps, unwitting chaos, disgruntled employees, anxiety, disruption and frustration—to name a few.

In “Going into Business with Emma Goldman,” Ari brings together two seemingly incompatible approaches—the century-old, revolutionary, anarchist beliefs of Emma Goldman and the business world with which she was, for most of her life, at odds. As Ari imagines it, the pamphlet is “an adventure in intellectual time travel—an uplifting, anarchist fable for the modern world.” This pamphlet brings to life Emma Goldman’s history, pulls extensively from her writing and speeches, and takes a few creative twists and turns to imagine her past a bit differently than it was, positioning her perspectives perfectly for the world of progressive business. The 18 lessons in the pamphlet can breathe life into any caring company, interested organization, or individual who wants to live a creative and fulfilled life!

What would happen if we approached our lives as artists? Put together our communication as if we were poets? Designed our spaces—small and large—as if we were architects? Listened to others like a musician? What if business leaders looked at their organizations as if they were making art for the ages instead of being just vehicles for making money? What if everyone—not just those who society calls “creatives”—is capable of turning what they do every day into amazing art?

In his new pamphlet, “Humility: A Humble, Anarchistic Inquiry,” Zingerman’s co-founder Ari Weinzweig shares his two-year-long inquiry into how the gentle art of humility can bring out our humanness, elevate organizational effectiveness, enhance leadership, and enrich quality of life. Humility, Ari suggests, is subtle, but significant. While it may be easy to miss in the moment, in the long run it’s hugely important to our health and humanity.

What a year it’s been! As we work our way through the marathon of a minefield that was 2020, this newly-released pamphlet from Zingerman’s Press shares Ari’s look back on the lessons learned in the first ten months of the global pandemic. Each offers a tangible tool for helping get through hard days—both the pandemic with which we’re currently confronted, but also any tough times in the years to come.

If you already know our work with visioning here at Zingerman’s, the new thoughts and learnings included here will add additional insight and understanding to the conversations that have come before it. If, on the other hand, this is your first encounter with the Zingerman’s ecosystem, then we're hopeful that this pamphlet will serve as a meaningful introduction to the idea of visioning

Ari shares: Our beliefs, I’ve come to understand over the years, play a huge part in making our lives what they are. Change our beliefs and things look—and in this case, cook up and taste—different. This is the food philosophy that underlies what we all (me included) eat at Zingerman’s, a look at how my own beliefs about food and cooking have evolved over the now 40-plus years we’ve been working to make Zingerman’s into something special. Includes recipes you can cook in your kitchen!

Feeling helpless in Zingerman’s hometown of Ann Arbor, Ari realized one way that he—we all—can fight back against autocracy and indignity even from afar: to create small revolutions of dignity in our daily lives. A revolution of dignity, locally, in the places we live and work every day, is the way to make that happen.