GROCERS GROWING COMMUNITY

Lowes Foods, a 100 store chain in the Carolinas, needed to transform itself from a normal store into one with a timeless hometown appeal. The employees were expected to behave like proud townsfolk in this fictional town. Lenn quickly realized that the training needed to start by modeling the newly expected behaviors. He set up the training room to look like a community center in a small town and turned the facilitator into the town "mayor." The mayor divided the participants into teams tasked with creating a menu for the town's centenial dinner. Each team, working with a tight budget, "visited" local "shops" and selected cost effective items. When the teams presented their menus, the mayor praised the least costly menus but selected the one with the most local ingredients. A discussion about the value of supporting local merchants enthused acd concluded that store employees should support, and be excited about, local food products. This activity effectively set a context for the performance theme training that followed.