Leadership

One of the underlying core values that is taught during our 16 week training is leadership. We do this through teaching strong customer service skills. "How can I help you," is a question leaders should be continuously asking their customers or clients. Well I like to call it customer service leaders. For too long people who work in the customer service arena have been walked on by rude and disrespectful customers. Our youth know this and can confirm this. So when you ask a teen what they would like to have as a career you will rarely hear, I want to work as a cashier at a grocery store. Many want to be in a way those rude and disrespectful customers. The person who is too busy to get off of their cell phone to place an order so does both in tandem. This is such poor manners. Everyone no matter their position deserves to be acknowledge, and hence our youth need to be taught that it is not necessarily a bad thing to work at a fast food joint. We need to feel valued as humans everyone from the migrant farmer to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Unfortunately our society has lost that respect that we have for our fellow workers.

Through out customer service teachings I teach the importance of listening. Jim Cathcart once said, "Listening is wanting to hear." We ask because we want to hear what the other person has to say and we mean it when we say, "Have a great day." We are so fortunate because our Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream shop is located right by a the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital. Everyday I get to meet courageous parents and their children who are fighting day in and day out for their lives. They bring their families in for a treat, but what they do not realize that they are the ones treating us with their stories of their struggles and successes and failures. The stories I hear will be ingrained in me for the rest of my life, all through scooping ice cream, who would have thought.

"Leadership is action not position." Donald H McGannon

Time has Passed

Our deadline for our next session was Sept. 4th. We received over a hundred applications. For this session we changed our application criteria. All applicants must have their ID and Social Security card in so we can make copies by the 4th as well. Also we are now only accepting applications from youth that live in the Minneapolis city limits and all applicants must be between the ages of 16-19, we can accept applications from youth who are 15, but will be 16 before we enter in store training. Orientation will be held on 2 days Tuesday Sept. 15th at 5:30 and Thursday Sept. 17th at 5:30. Training will begin Sept. 22nd at 5pm.

Time Flies...

...When you are busy. So much has been going on around here at Community Action of Minneapolis and Ben & Jerry's you must accept my apologies for my time spent away from our blog.

We had a fabulous graduation for our youth. 38 teens ages 16-19 graduated on August 11th, 2009. We had an outpouring of support for our youth with over 100 family and friends supporting their loved one. I was so touched to see families so supportive. We all know the importance of having that strong inner circle of support. We had a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Cake and punch for dessert.

Starting the next day our youth began in store training. Sessions were split up into 3 groups. Shift 1 was from 11-1, shift 2 was from 3-5, and shift 3 was from 5:30-7:30. There were approximately 4 youth in each shift.

Session 1 consisted of a tour of the store, presentation of the uniform, as well as policies and procedures of Ben & Jerry's. We also reviewed all of the flavors and their location with in the dip cases.

During session 2, participants were able to watch how to properly scoop and weigh the different serving sizes. They also got to see demonstrations of preparing smoothies, milk shakes, waffle cones and bowls, cookies, and brownies.

Session 3 was all about application. Participants began practicing their scooping. Each participant was also able to make their own milkshake and smoothie (one of the many perks of working for a great company). They also got to make waffle mix and make waffle bowls and cones.

Action was the theme for session 4. This was an opportunity for us to see which participant has the drive and takes initiative to do things when not asked. Starting with scooping practice, all the way to making sure that the store is clean and that everything is stocked and organized. Also on this day the youth were able to make their own type of sundae and practiced making banana splits as well as packing pints and quarts.

Session 5 was all about review. This was an opportunity to make sure everyone was caught up and retaining the information. As each youth who chooses to continue on in the program and try to get hired will have to take a scooper's test which will cover everything that they have learned through their 8 sessions. We also discussed how to receive phone calls and did role playing involving different scenarios that they may incur while taking customers phone calls. We also practiced taking cake orders.

On session 6 we began the intro into cakes. We went over how to pack a cake and what each should weigh. Also we went over the fillings and frosting.

Session 7 was dedicated to frosting and decorating cakes. We also worked on dipped cones and bananas.

Our final session, session 8 was a review for the scooper's exam. We conducted flavor quizzes and taste tests. We went over what to do when all else is done. And we discussed more of the business side of things such as the cost of products and the repercussions of waste. We discussed the importance of working in a team. Also we talked about our expansion of the catering and how we conduct our catering business.