The Great Game of Government: Playing without Bonuses or Equity

Greene County, MO is the first county government organization to attempt to apply the theories of the Great Game of Business to their organizational culture. Unfortunately, this does not come without some new barriers. Being a government organization, Greene County cannot give out bonuses or gain buy-in through equity. How does Greene County expect to move forward in The Great Game without one of its key components?

1. You Gotta Wanna

Creating buy-in among the staff and key leadership is critical. Greene County is facing a five year run without any kind of pay increase and without a new source of revenue, deeper cuts into the budget are expected next year. The staff knows this and they work diligently to find ways to reduce spending from buying their own office supplies to cross-training for different positions. They see what is down the road and they are working hard to avoid another round of crippling budget cuts.

2. Build Your Knowledge Base 

An educated staff is one of the best weapons any organization can have at its disposal. Staff members who see the Big Picture can make suggestions that improve working practices within the entire organization. They can also help solve problems that may affect the entire organization.

3. Don’t Wait 

The longer an organization takes to decide if this is the business culture that they want in their workplace, the longer an organization has to wait for it to start working.

4. Commit for the Long Haul 

Your organization will not change overnight. Instilling little changes over time will help create buy-in until most of your organization has bought into the idea and begin working towards the bigger picture. Greene County has been working at this for over two years now. Do we have full buy-in yet? No, but every day we get closer.

Open-book management may be the best way to keep politics out of public finance.