How does someone take three conservative intellectual property businesses with very traditional cultures and transform them into an engaged, high-performing business? To compound the challenge, we were now publicly listed and were moving the business from a partnership model to complete transparency. The Great Game of Business® helped us to overcome these challenges, culturally transform our business, and achieve both improved engagement and financial results.
In the process, we learned four important lessons:
The Great Game helped our company, Xenith IP, drive a business transformation journey which involved moving from a tightly held partnership model to open-book management where all employees have the tools to make better business decisions and achieve strong financial results.
GGOB has helped us set clear targets, create structure, and exercise strong leadership. As with any transformation, priority also needs to be placed on finding efficient and scalable ways to engage employees and build capabilities, especially leadership capabilities.
In order to implement transformation strategies and Great Game™ practices, we utilized a corporate university and online training. Traditionally, workplace learning at Xenith IP has focused largely on technical skills and results for the organization—not the individual. We’ve learned that corporate university and an online training solution can provide the infrastructure for employee and management training including GGOB, and have seen that educating and engaging our team benefits not only employees individually, but the entire organization.
Integrating GGOB can change your culture and give your organization a competitive advantage. The word ‘culture’ is such a buzzword that we hear almost every day, but what does it actually mean and how can we change it?
For me, culture is about how people interact, and treat one another in the workplace. The type of leaders you have in your organization will impact the kind of culture you have, which is why changing an existing culture can be so difficult. GGOB has given our leaders and our people the ownership and benefits they were looking for, and in turn, the competitive edge to outperform competitors in the market.
We have discovered that impactful leadership and culture are inextricably linked. Being an impactful leader is about influencing people to believe, trust and join in the one vision. GGOB has inspired our leaders to have an impact on our people and our organization by taking responsibility for driving engagement and building a culture of trust and accountability.
A key point to remember is that GGOB is a way to operate your business with engagement and involvement of everyone in the company, and like any project or business transformation, it needs to be carefully planned, managed, and measured. It’s tough, but resist the excitement of just jumping right in, and instead develop a plan with the underlying premise that it’s your people who will power the transformation.
To learn tools and takeaways to help you achieve real results in your own business transformation journey, join Kylie Sprott at the 27th annual Gathering of Games, where she will be presenting on this topic.
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