CHICAGO – What happens when you bring 12,000 Starbucks partners together for a three-day leadership experience? As it turns out – it’s conversations, connections and a whole lot of coffee.

core/paragraph

Here are a few of the highlights from the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/12000-starbucks-partners-gather-in-chicago-for-transformative-leadership-experience/">2019 Starbucks Leadership Experience in Chicago</a>, which concluded today.

Twelve thousand store managers and field leaders from across the United States and Canada arrived at McCormick Center for the Leadership Experience, where they were greeted with cheers, high-fives and pompoms.

core/image

On Wednesday, store managers took part in a community open house. The event was designed to give them community service tools and resources to bring back to their own neighborhoods, such as Mercy Corps, Feeding America and the Kindness Rocks project. Partners also helped nominate 500&nbsp;community organizations across the U.S. and Canada, which will be awarded $1,500 each - a total investment of $750,000. At the open house, they also voted with tokens to help direct Starbucks Foundation dollars toward their favorite social impact causes. The top three were hunger, Opportunity Youth and sustainability.&nbsp;

core/gallery

At Starbucks, it is customary that most meetings start with a coffee tasting. The opening general session was no exception, with the nearly 12,000 partners in attendance, believed to be one of the world’s largest simultaneous coffee tastings. At the closing session, the crowd tasted a single-origin bean from Hacienda Alsacia, Starbucks’ coffee farm in Costa Rica, in tribute to the 400,000 farmers and families that supply the company with beans.

Starbucks chief operating officer and group president <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/leadership/rosalind-roz-brewer/">Roz Brewer</a> joined Trenton store manager Stephanie Campfield on stage to lead the opening general session in the “Cupid Shuffle.” Campfield started an open mic night at her store, held each Saturday, which has a tradition of ending with everyone doing the dance together.&nbsp;

Starbucks chief executive officer <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/leadership/kevin-johnson/">Kevin Johnson</a> awarded a ceremonial key to the original Pike Place Market store to each attendee of the conference. “The 1912 key is a symbol of the journey we have been on as a company over the last 48 years,” he said. “But this key is also the key to our future. As your partner I want you to know this – I believe in you. The 1912 key, the power of one.”

At the Experience Hall, partners followed the bean through each stage of coffee’s journey, starting at a replica of Starbucks coffee farm at <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/creating-starbucks-visitor-center-at-hacienda-alsacia/">Hacienda Alsacia</a> in Costa Rica. Carlos Mario Rodriguez, Starbucks director of global research and development, and Victor Trejos, general manager of the coffee farm and Global Agronomy Center, at Hacienda Alsacia talked with partners about their work with farmers.

The <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2017/hidden-history-at-starbucks-pike-place-market-store/">original Pike Place Market store</a> in Seattle attracts so many visitors that there’s often a long line just to get in. Conference organizers found a creative solution to this same problem in the Experience Hall by building two side-by-side replicas that partners could walk through. The stores even featured the wear on the wooden counters in the exact places as the original store.

Innovation to action in 100 days

The Experience Hall also featured a paired down version of the Tryer Center, <a href="/Users/landerso/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/2E16FXW6/Carlos%20Mario%20Rodriguez,%20Starbucks%20director%20of%20global%20research%20and%20development,%20and%20Victor%20Trejos,%20general%20manager%20of%20the%20coffee%20farm%20and%20Global%20Agronomy%20Center,%20at%20Hacienda%20Alsacia%20talk%20about%20their%20work%20with%20farmers.">a center for innovation at the Starbucks Support Center</a>, the company’s headquarters, in Seattle, where partners are encouraged to try new things and move from an idea to action in 100 days, refining along the way. In the Experience Hall, partners saw exhibits such as a mock up for solar panels that will soon be piloted in some stores in California, worked with industrial designers to reimagine how the space in their stores could be used and used a laser cutter to create new tools.

Breaking the mental health stigma

At the closing general session, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/leadership/rossann-williams/">Rossann Williams</a>, who leads the Starbucks U.S. retail business, shared that the company is committed to help break the stigma of mental health and get partners and their loved ones the support they need. She announced Starbucks will be expanding mental health benefits to U.S. partners, one of the top benefit requests made by partners. “Today we are taking a stand,” she said. “We believe in breaking the stigma around mental health.”

Writing the next chapter

Johnson reflected on his first leadership conference as Starbucks chief executive officer – and shared his dreams for the company’s next 50 years. “This Leadership Experience is all about community, making connections, sharing the energy, and inspiring one another,” he said, before leaving the stage Friday to a standing ovation. 

Top 10 moments from Starbucks Leadership Experience in Chicago - Starbucks Stories

Stories to inspire and nurture the human spirit

Starbucks Stories

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/01/Photo_TBD-320x411_1-1.jpg

Starbucks Corporation

Top 10 moments from Starbucks Leadership Experience in Chicago

Here are a few of the highlights from the 2019 Starbucks Leadership Experience in Chicago, Sept. 4-6.

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/09/SBX20190906-Starbucks-Leadership-Featured-Image.jpg

https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/top-10-moments-from-starbucks-leadership-experience-in-chicago/

twitter:card

twitter:description

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/09/SBX20190906-Starbucks-Leadership-Featured-Image-1024x498.jpg

twitter:image

twitter:title

A letter from Kevin Johnson, Starbucks ceo, to all partners

The energy here in Chicago is palpable as we welcome our store managers and field leaders from around the US and Canada for Leadership Experience 2019! 

This is the largest partner experience in our company history, and a signal of our commitment to store managers and field leaders who are well positioned to lead us forward.&nbsp; What Rossann Williams, Francesca Peri and the entire Leadership Experience team have designed for these few days is unlike anything I could have ever imagined, and we will share this special experience to boldly reimagine an exciting future for Starbucks Coffee Company.

Over the past two years, we have all been on a journey to transform the partner and customer experience, as we build an enduring company for generations to come. We have reset our leadership team structure, reimagined what it means to create a third place, tackled many of the social issues that affect us as partners and as communities, and outlined an agenda for growth at scale that is grounded in Our Mission and Values. Our work is beginning to pay off, and it’s because of you. Together, our best ideas and boldest aspirations will allow us to continue doing what we do best: stay true to Our Mission and Values, challenge the status quo, and dream bigger than ever before as we look to the future.&nbsp; 

It has long been our belief that when we put our partners first, the result is an elevated Starbucks Experience for our stores, our customers, and our communities. “This Moment” in Chicago will be a defining milestone on our journey. We’re going to use our time together to have an honest conversation about the things to support you showing up as the leader your partners and customers need, and we’re going to deliver on a set of major commitments to help you on your Starbucks journey.&nbsp; Our store managers and field leaders will leave stronger and more equipped to carry Starbucks forward.&nbsp; This week, we will:

core/list

Leadership Experience 2019 is a galvanizing moment for all of us. No matter your role at Starbucks, we are all united in a common Mission as we embrace the next great chapter of our story. At this transformative time for the company, we must continue to have the wisdom to honor our heritage and stay true to our Mission and Values, while at the same time have the courage to boldly reimagine the future of Starbucks. 

core/separator

At the conclusion of Leadership Experience 2019, Rossann Williams, executive vice president and president of U.S. Retail, shared this letter with partners

We just wrapped up an unforgettable Leadership Experience here in Chicago. It was a true celebration of the power of more than 12,000 Starbucks leaders coming together to reaffirm Our Mission and completely reimagine what’s possible. To the store managers, field leaders and support partners with us in Chicago… THANK YOU for making every moment count. 

We have been on a journey over the last two years to transform the customer and partner experience in every store and in every community. Your honest feedback through store visits, open forums, Workplace, and Partner Perspectives has helped inspire some much-needed changes like new laptops for store managers, improvements to our scheduling software with Teamworks, Clean Play, digital incident reporting, a way to print all on your Playbuilder updates, and more. These improvements, combined with your leadership and commitment to Our Mission, have allowed us to reach record performance. 

From our conversations, I know we can do more. Our stores and communities are constantly evolving, and we now serve 75 million customers a week! The Third Place is more necessary, yet more complex than ever before. Our roles might never be simple, but we need to reduce complexity. We have listened and learned so much from you and have some important decisions to share. This week, we made a series of commitments at the LE19 General Sessions, including:

We’ll have more in the Sept. 9 Weekly Update. We’re only just getting started. We will listen to your feedback to make sure we get it right, so you can be the very best you can be in your role as store leaders. And as we do that, we will continue to lend our voice to the most important issues affecting our communities, while creating opportunities for you to lead. As shared at LE19, these include:

The day we all get back home will be the most important day for our future as a company. As leaders, how will we show up differently for our partners? How will we pour as much love as we can into our customers? How will we lead our stores differently? With Our Mission and Values at our core, we now have everything we need to reimagine what’s possible, starting right now. You are in charge, and we are here to serve and support. You hold the keys to our future, and we want you to truly feel valued, loved and proud of what we are all building, together.

I leave Chicago knowing there are true heroes amongst us. They are our partners in green aprons, with dreams and aspirations bigger than ever before. They are our customers, who come to us for that great cup of coffee and a place that makes them feel welcomed with love and respect. They are the individuals in our communities working tirelessly to make a real difference in the lives of others. And they are leaders, like you, who are going to change the world by nurturing and inspiring the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. 

As I reflect on our time together this week, I am reminded of Kevin’s words: to build an enduring company, we must always have the wisdom to know what to honor and preserve from the past, and the courage to boldly reimagine the future. Standing here in Chicago with all of you, I feel so proud to work for a company that has the courage to dream big… and then, to dream even bigger! Chicago will forever be a defining milestone in our nearly 50-year history of living Our Mission and Values, and the starting line for what comes next. We’re all in this together. We will need to be more courageous than ever before. We are the leaders our partners, our customers and our communities are waiting for. 

Thank you for being on the journey. Thank you for being you.

Starbucks store managers gather for unprecedented Leadership Experience in Chicago - Starbucks Stories

Starbucks store managers gather for unprecedented Leadership Experience in Chicago

Starbucks ceo: Commitment to coffee heritage, communities, sustainability and mental health services are all themes of biggest-ever partner event in company history.

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/01/Starbucks_Logo_Hi-res.jpg

Starbucks store managers, field leaders gather for unprecedented Leadership Experience

https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/kevin-johnson-sends-a-letter-to-all-partners/

CHICAGO – The Windy City is a place of firsts for Starbucks. In 1987, when the company was looking to open its first U.S. store outside of its home base of Seattle, it picked Chicago – a successful experiment that helped give the company confidence to grow across the country and around the world.

Now, more than 30 years later, Chicago is the setting for another first – Starbucks largest-ever employee conference. This week, 12,000 store managers and field leaders are gathering for the Starbucks Leadership Experience, a three-day event designed to help transform leaders and solidify the foundation of an enduring company. It began Wednesday (Sept. 4) with a community service expo at McCormick Place Convention Center, engaging with more than 35 community service organizations like Chicago Cares, the American Red Cross and Feeding America.

The event officially kicks off today (Sept. 5) with the opening general session at United Center for more than 10,000 store managers from company-operated and licensed stores from across the United States and Canada – plus 2,000 regional leaders, the senior leadership team and staff. It marks the first such gathering since its <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2012/starbucks-advances-mobile-payment-experience-extends-starbucks-reserve-coff/">2012 Global Leadership Conference in Houston</a>, and the first under the leadership of Starbucks chief executive officer Kevin Johnson.

“This is the largest partner experience in our company history, and a signal of our commitment to store managers and field leaders who are well positioned to lead us forward,” said<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/kevin-johnson-sends-a-letter-to-all-partners/"> Johnson in a letter to Starbucks partners earlier today</a>.&nbsp;

After the general session, attendees will take part in a series of interactive leadership sessions at McCormick Place over the next two days, with topics that include customer service, partner development, growing your business, and mental health awareness. Participants will also immerse themselves in the Starbucks story at the Experience Hall, which will follow the journey of coffee and Starbucks from bean to cup. The event will conclude Friday night with an inspirational closing general session at United Center. 

“At this transformative time for the company, we must continue to have the wisdom to honor our heritage and stay true to Our Mission and Values, while at the same time have the courage to boldly reimagine the future of Starbucks,” said Johnson. 

Here’s how the largest employee gathering in the company’s history breaks down by the numbers from largest to smallest.

While store managers are at the Leadership Experience, 11 million customers a day will be served at their stores in the United States and Canada. 

Leadership Experience is occupying nearly 800,000 square feet of learning and meeting space at McCormick Place, including the 300,000 square foot Experience Hall. United Center covers another 960,000 square feet. 

The 10,000 store managers attending have an average tenure of 7.5 years. 

Attendees will spend over 60,000 hours in six leadership development sessions. 

A typical attendee walks more than 17,000 steps each day between courses and event. 

Includes over 10,000 store managers from the United States, Canada and licensed stores plus field leaders, senior leaders, and support staff. 

Partners in the Experience Hall will immerse themselves in coffee’s journey, from raking beds of drying coffee beans to trying out new brewing equipment. 

The opening and closing sessions of the Leadership Experience, one of 200 events held each year at the largest arena in the U.S., will draw an audience of roughly 12,000 – about the same size as Ariana Grande’s concert there in 2017. 

Since Starbucks opened its first store outside Seattle and Vancouver, B.C in Chicago on Oct. 19, 1987. The market now has more than 130 Starbucks stores including its <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-opens-in-englewood-chicago">South Side</a> Community Store, five Starbucks Reserve coffee bars like the one in <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2017/starbucks-reserve-bar-opens-in-chicago-wrigleyville/">Wrigleyville</a>, and 18 locations at O’Hare International Airport.

Partners will hear from more than a dozen different speakers at the general sessions and over 40 docents at the Experience Hall.

About 33 percent of partners attended the last Starbucks leadership conference in <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2012/starbucks-advances-mobile-payment-experience-extends-starbucks-reserve-coff/">Houston in 2012</a>.

In the Experience Hall, partners will walk through replicas of key places in Starbucks history, including: the original Starbucks store in <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2017/hidden-history-at-starbucks-pike-place-market-store/">Seattle’s Pike Place Market</a>, its farm at <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/5-things-to-know-about-starbucks-farm-hacienda-alsacia/">Hacienda Alsacia</a> in Costa Rica; and the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/inside-the-tryer-center-the-starbucks-lab-where-anything-is-possible/">Tryer Center</a> the company’s innovation lab at its Seattle headquarters.

 Kevin Johnson gave each store manager a ceremonial key to the Pike Place Market store at the opening general session, in honor of the store where Starbucks first began.

Photos by Joshua Trujillo and Connor Surdi

12,000 Starbucks partners gather in Chicago for leadership experience - Starbucks Stories

12,000 Starbucks partners gather in Chicago for leadership experience

The largest employee conference in Starbucks history brings together 12,000 store managers and field leaders and staff from across the United States and Canada.

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/09/SBX20190904-LE19-By-the-Numbers-Feature-2.jpg

https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/12000-starbucks-partners-gather-in-chicago-for-transformative-leadership-experience/

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/09/SBX20190904-LE19-By-the-Numbers-Feature-2-1024x498.jpg

leadership experience

leadership experience - Starbucks Stories

Home

https://stories.starbucks.com/tag/leadership-experience/

English

Our aspiration is to be people positive—investing in humanity and the well-being of everyone we connect with, from our partners to coffee farmers to the customers in our stores and beyond.

People

Planet

Coffee is at our heart, inspiring our craft and driving innovation—in our drinks, our food, our stores and new ways we bring the Starbucks experience to you wherever you are.