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Getting Started with the Great Game of Business: It's Simpler Than You Think

Oct 21, 2020 by Steve Baker 1 Comment
When practicing The Great Game of Business® (GGOB), the breakthrough comes when companies shift from focusing on an event (bonus plan, financial literacy program, etc.) to using GGOB as an operating system to run their organization. GGOB is a system. It’s a pattern. It’s a strategy. It’s a way of thinking. If you want to fully leverage the power of Great Game™, you must treat it as a system and persistently work it.
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Four Essential Items to Cover During A Huddle

Jan 14, 2020 by Steve Baker 0 Comments
Huddles are a hybrid of typical staff meetings, not unlike what you might see during downtime at any athletic event. Their purpose is to share information while motivating and inspiring employees. What is a Huddle? For us at Great Game™, a Huddle is a structured meeting designed to keep the players focused on, informed about, and feeling involved in The Game. While the concept sounds easy enough, the Huddle must be carefully planned and executed in order to be both effective and efficient. Because of the changing work landscape (commuters, multi-location business units, diverse company cultures, etc.), the Huddle process is the one aspect of The Great Game of Business® that companies have to modify most. However, regardless of how you modify the overall flow of your company Huddle, there are several basic items you must always cover during your Huddle.
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3 Things You Need to Design into Your Bonus Plan

Dec 30, 2019 by Steve Baker 1 Comment
Yup. It’s that time of year. We gather the family for the holidays, light the fire and watch Christmas Vacation. And it’s hilarious…until you remember that you still haven’t finalized your company’s bonus plan for the New Year. Yikes! You don’t want to end up like Frank Shirley (Clark W. Griswold’s boss), do you? As you design your organization’s bonus plan for the New Year, I want you to keep in mind a few things about designing what we call a Stake in the Outcome®. For those who play the Great Game of Business®, providing a Stake in the Outcome is one of the most important parts (and least understood practices) of the entire business operating system. And it goes way beyond the bonus!
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Why is Choosing a Critical Number™ So Important?

Aug 22, 2019 by Steve Baker 0 Comments
At any given time in your business, there is one thing, an operational or financial number that represents a weakness or vulnerability that, if not addressed and corrected, will negatively impact the overall performance and long-term security of the business. This one thing is known as your company’s Critical Number™. Ultimately, the Critical Number defines winning. It rallies people around a common goal and directs a focus to what’s most important to the company’s success. From this definition, it’s clear to see why identifying a Critical Number is valuable to your business, but the Critical Number is also very important to your employees. If they do not understand and buy-in to the Critical Number, it is likely that this number will continue to go unnoticed. Here are three key ways the right Critical Number will strengthen your business:
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The Management Style Every Millennial Should Know

Feb 5, 2019 by Steve Baker 0 Comments
Amy’s Ice Creams’ workforce is made up primarily of millennials, most of which are seasonal employees. In the short time these younger workers are with Amy's, this Great Game All-Star company maximizes engagement in order to make a lasting impact on employees' futures, as well as the success of the business. Take a look at what Marketing and Communications Director, Aaron Clay, has to say about the company's fun, fast-paced and positive Huddles combined with open-book management, and his four guidelines for enhancing engagement in your team's Huddles.
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Perception vs. Reality: Roadblocks to Transparency and Where to Begin

Jan 30, 2019 by Steve Baker 1 Comment
What if you could open your books tomorrow without worry or fear? What would it take? In this blog, Great Game of Business Vice President, Steve Baker, addresses common concerns when opening the books and how employee misunderstandings and assumptions can be far more dangerous than business transparency.
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Gathering Highlights | How Having Hope Helps

Apr 4, 2018 by Steve Baker 0 Comments
This is the first in our series of weekly blogs on the Annual Gathering of Games, the world's largest conference on open-book management. This year marks the 26th anniversary of the event, which attracts business leaders from companies of all sizes, in all industries, from all over the world, who recognize that they can transform their businesses by valuing and elevating their greatest resource: their employees. These articles are written by Great Game employees to highlight some of the highest rated sessions at the 2017 conference. We hope to give you a flavor of the content-rich sessions that can be found at The Gathering of Games. Click the link below to hear the entire audio recording from this breakout session.
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Press Play: Great Game® Mentioned in Recent Podcast

Nov 25, 2016 by Steve Baker 0 Comments
We're so pleased to hear about how OBM and The Great Game of Business has inspired yet another company's growth in this podcast by Hubstaff Blog.
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About The Great Game of Business

Our approach to running a company was developed to help close one of the biggest gaps in business: the gap between managers and employees. We call our open-book approach The Great Game of Business. What lies at the heart of The Game is a very simple proposition: The best, most efficient, most profitable way to operate a business is to give everybody in the company a voice in saying how the company is run and a stake in the outcome. Let us teach you how to develop a culture of ownership, where employees think, act and feel like owners.