--- title: An Educated Worker Is an Innovative Worker description: How many companies dedicate time, space, and personnel for employees to work on strengthening their brains image: https://www.shiftthework.com/hubfs/photo-1519955501004-97097a787c5a.jpeg --- [![Shift The Work](https://www.shiftthework.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Shift_The_Work_July2018/images/new-shift-logo-mobile.png?width=300&height=328&name=new-shift-logo-mobile.png "Shift The Work")](https://www.shiftthework.com/) - [About](https://www.shiftthework.com/about-shift/) - [Blog](https://www.shiftthework.com/blog) - [Latch](https://www.shiftthework.com/latch) - [CONSULTING](https://www.shiftthework.com/shift-consulting) - [SOCIETY](https://www.shiftthework.com/shift-society/) [![Shift The Work](https://www.shiftthework.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Shift_The_Work_July2018/images/new-shift-logo-mobile.png?width=300&height=328&name=new-shift-logo-mobile.png "Shift The Work")](https://www.shiftthework.com/) [![Shift The Work](https://www.shiftthework.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Shift_The_Work_July2018/images/new-shift-logo.png?width=348&height=348&name=new-shift-logo.png "Shift The Work")](https://www.shiftthework.com/) - [About](https://www.shiftthework.com/about-shift/) - [Blog](https://www.shiftthework.com/blog) - [Latch](https://www.shiftthework.com/latch) - [CONSULTING](https://www.shiftthework.com/shift-consulting) - [SOCIETY](https://www.shiftthework.com/shift-society/) [← Return to Posts](https://www.shiftthework.com/blog) # An Educated Worker Is an Innovative Worker January 9, 2019 *•* [Joe Mechlinski](https://www.shiftthework.com/blog/author/joe-mechlinski) ![photo-1519955501004-97097a787c5a](https://www.shiftthework.com/hs-fs/hubfs/photo-1519955501004-97097a787c5a.jpeg?width=1558&name=photo-1519955501004-97097a787c5a.jpeg) When companies truly embody their mission, they attract people whose values are aligned with the company. Here are two companies whose missions and values act as guideposts for how workers move through their workdays. **[Glassman Wealth Services](https://www.glassmanwealth.com/)** (a great client of ours) devotes one day per month for employees to sit and think. Football teams hire strength and conditioning coaches and set aside time for players to hit the gym. Yet, how many companies dedicate time, space, and personnel for employees to work on strengthening their brains, and reinforcing their engagement? Zingerman’s Delicatessen, a noted gourmet grocery store, deli and specialty foods shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is all about lifelong learning, giving back to the community and empowering it's employees to build engagement. Zingerman's has what it calls its “Three Bottom Lines.” Bottom Line #1 is Great Food. Bottom Line #2 is Great Service. Where it gets innovative is Bottom Line #3: Great Finance.  Every worker is supplied with detailed information about the company’s finances. This effort at educating the workforce is the very definition of running a culture that treats everyone like adults and partners in the mission.  Employees who know the profits and losses connected to their specific job are more likely to innovate and produce creative ways to do the job in a more efficient and productive manner.  In this environment, the person who cleans the trays off the table is more likely to bring up noticing how customers throw out a lot of unused napkins and ketchup packets. These empowered, informed employees will offer the kind of information about real-time customer interactions that will have an impact on the business  ## **Ready to Shift?** Discover the *Wall Street Journal* and *USA Today* bestseller that's leading the movement towards a more engaged workforce. [*Shift The Work*](https://amzn.to/2C8NGGK) reveals the revolutionary science behind employee engagement and how you can use work as a weapon to find your best self. Ready to go all in at work, at home and in life? 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