Incentive - October 2008 - (Page 30)

they had learned, the company started a private Ning page. At Ning.com, groups can create their own “social networks” where members can post video, audio and discussion threads, and use other types of media to interact with one another. “As a matter of fact, Ning itself was one of the first learnings when somebody asked, ‘What else is out there for social networking?’ ” says McMullen. “Everyone in the company is now a member of it, and we use it as a central tool, and we’ve even since used it with clients.” Ning wasn’t the only successful idea to grow out of the Apple for the Mind program. Other employees took the opportunity to learn more about mobile marketing. Their better understanding of this area developed into a successful pitch to one of Red Pepper’s clients. McMullen says that the natural impulse for a person who encounters something new is that they “turn their head down and stick to the daily grind” of the familiar, but by rewarding the learning of new workrelated knowledge, he says, Red Pepper has its employees searching eagerly for something new to learn and teach. McMullen says all this learning boosts the energy of the office, and that the company’s low turnover rate reflects the workers’ engagement with their work. “It gives us a competitive edge,” says McMullen. “There are things that we’re doing that other agencies that we’re competing against aren’t even thinking about, because they’re just so busy getting through their day. We’d rather bill a little bit less and learn a little bit more.” Back to the Land Running a cutting-edge marketing campaign requires a vastly different skill set than managing the wine list of an Italian restaurant. Yet personal development and a constantly evolving knowledge of the work involved are both necessary for the greatest success in either field. Nice Ventures, a restaurant management company that owns and operates three full-service restaurants in San Francisco, has received accolades for its food, wine, ambience and service, including the James Beard Foundation award for best new restaurant in the country (for its Italian restaurant Rose Pistola). The company’s success can be attributed in part to the efforts taken by its owner to develop the staff through exciting and educational travel. The company sponsors about two trips a year for its staff, to culinary destinations where they can not only enjoy themselves, but take in the ambience and learn more about the cuisine and culture that Terzo), the general manager and company CFO. The trip may have been an energizing and fun experience, but it was also a disciplined one, with a detailed itinerary that ensured the leadership would be seeing a variety of restaurants, from standard-bearers like Joël Robuchon to hole-in-the-wall tapas bars; to fit in all the eateries often meant two dinners a night. Two years ago, the sous chef and general manager from Rose Pistola toured through the Mediterranean culinary capitals Nice, Venice and a number of smaller cities and towns, witnessing prosciutto-making and food preparing, and taking in the culture of the region. “Every year we try to do it,” says Thomas. “Once the restaurant is open, I think it’s really important to get back over to the region where the inspiration for the restaurant comes from.” Thomas sees the trips as particularly valuable for staffers who are still fresh to the industry. The experiential education gained from actually eating the food or watching how the wine grapes are grown gives her staff members a knowledge base that infuses the work they do for years to come. “We’d rather bill a little bit less and learn a little bit more.” —Tim McMullen, Red Pepper Inc. attract their customers to the restaurant. Last fall, Nice Ventures’ Owner and CEO Laurie Thomas took the team from the company’s pan-Mediterranean restaurant, Terzo, to New York, including the chef, his wife (a part-time chef at Thomas points to Simon Anixter, the wine director of Rose Pistola, who visited Italy for the first time earlier this year. An employee with Nice Ventures for two years, he had been overseeing the wine list of Rose’s Café, the company’s sidewalk bistro-bakery, and recently took over the more extensive wine list at Rose Pistola. After spending the first four days of his trip at Vinitaly, a major wine show, Simon and a friend toured the Piedmont and Liguria regions of Italy by car, with Nice Ventures paying his salary and covering expenses (Simon’s friend paid for himself). It was part incentive trip, part fact-finding mission. Thomas saw this as an opportunity to give the director experience with the region, visiting restaurants and local wine stores and taking in the area so he could return more knowledgeable and more likely to excel at his work. At the same time Anixter enjoyed a fabulous trip with a friend, acquiring memories that he will savor for years. “It really invigorated him. You go over there and you realize, ‘Wow, this is really what we’re trying to do,’ and ‘Wow, there’s a whole lot more to learn,’ ” says Thomas. “They come back and they’re grateful for the opportunity, and they add a lot more value to the restaurant.” Upon returning, Anixter put together a full write-up of his experiences and what he’s learned, and also discussed the trip with his coworkers at the restaurant. This follows a point Liz Bywater makes about the value of this kind of personal development: Constant improvement is both an internal reward for the individual and an external reward for the entire culture of the organization. “When there’s an expectation that people are going to continue their learning and expanding their skill level, it will just become the organizational norm, and individuals will want to fall in with that,” says Bywater. s Send comments to alex.palmer@incentivemag.com 30 | Incentive | October 2008 | incentivemag.com http://www.Ning.com http://www.incentivemag.com

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Incentive - October 2008 Contents Editor's Note Headlines Cover Story: Face Time with Senior Executives is the Top Motivator of Cisco Systems' Chairman's Club Winners Incentive Interview Safety Incentives: Safety Drives a Limousine Service's Motivational Efforts Case Study Primer Learning: Diving into Incentives for the Mind Enhances Both Loyalty and the Bottom Line Research: Travel IQ Travel News Florida Coast to Cost Caribbean Escape Potentials Here and Now Gadgets & Power Tools: High-End Roars Seen at the Motivation Show Advertisers Index Off the Cuff

Incentive - October 2008

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