Responding to Workplace Conflicts
Whenever people work together, conflicts will naturally arise. Here’s a framework to help leaders resolve conflicts. This article will describe three categories of conflicts and a process that can be used to resolve each. _______________________________________________________________ [...]
CBLD Testimonial – Pam Mehnert 2017
Pam Mehnert, GM, Outpost Natural Foods
What Kind of Experience Does Your Food Co-op Deliver?
Customer service experiences are a very hot topic, especially online and in social media. People regularly share the good and the bad, and social media has become the new word-of-mouth. It’s where people hear from [...]
Cooperative Service Training Helps Staff Promote the Co-op
Friendly City Food Co-op Harrisonburg, VA Year founded: 2011 Membership investment: $200 Number of members: 1,800 Number of employees: 34 Retail square feet: 5,600 When Friendly City Food Co-op in Harrisonburg, Va. opened as a [...]
Whistleblower Policy for Employee Handbook
If you observe what you believe to be wrongful conduct, you have the right and the duty to report it without fear of retaliation. Definition of wrongful conduct Wrongful conduct includes serious improprieties that potentially [...]
Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
The concept of emotional intelligence is now part of popular culture. Just as we each have an IQ or Intelligence Quotient that measures cognitive ability, some social scientists say we have an EQ or Emotional [...]
Everyone Welcome? Personal Narratives about Race and Food Co-ops
By Jade Barker and Patricia Cumbie We believe that now is a critical time to engage our cooperative community in important conversations about racism and oppression. Everyone Welcome? Personal Narratives about Race and Food Co-ops [...]
The Cooperative Advantage
Sometimes the obvious isn’t so obvious. Just because we have co-op in our name does not mean that people will really understand what that means. The formal definition of a cooperative is an autonomous association [...]
Skills for Building the Board-General Manager Relationship
There is nothing more fundamental to cooperative governance than the board-GM relationship. After all, the entire leadership of the co-op rests on how the board and the general manager work together in their respective roles, [...]
Gaining Grocery Fluency
Most directors are drawn to serve on the board of their local food co-op because they embrace its values and mission, and not because they yearn to become grocers. And yet their role as the [...]