As the old saying goes, opposites attract—which can be especially true in business. When Reed MacNaughton and Dan Cocozza met back in college, however, they became friends based on what made them alike. They were both engineering students who took all the same classes together at Union College in Schenectady, NY. They also pledged the same fraternity, Sigma Phi,  and when they graduated in 2004, they both moved to New York City, where they roomed together as they started jobs as structural engineers. Later, they both became entrepreneurs when they each founded their own business: MacNaughton moved back to his home state of Connecticut to start a residential construction firm while Cocozza stayed in the big city. They were both very successful in their ventures.

By definition, a MiniGame™ is a short-term activity designed to correct a weakness or pursue an opportunity in your company. MiniGames motivate employees to make day-to-day improvements that will add up to year-long success, and when implemented correctly, MiniGames are proven to: Affect a financial or operational change: Drive results through improved performance. Increase business literacy: Reinforce key components of business success such as goal setting, mutual responsibility and performance management. Build teamwork: Rally employees (players) around a common goal in order to achieve a shared reward. Develop a winning attitude: Create an environment where winners are recognized and rewarded for generating results.

While the percentage of engaged employees in the US is higher than it has ever been, according to Gallup more than 50% of employees are unengaged: “they may be generally satisfied but are not cognitively and emotionally connected to their work and workplace; they will usually show up to work and do the minimum required but will quickly leave their company for a slightly better offer.”   What’s worse—13% are actively disengaged employees who, in addition to being poor performers who exerted minimal effort, are four times more likely to leave their organization than the average employee.

By definition, the Critical Number™ is the 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. Overall, the Critical Number is the heart of The Great Game of Business®. Each of our three fundamental processes (Know & Teach the Rules, Follow the Action & Keep Score and Provide a Stake in the Outcome®) revolves around educating, involving and engaging employees to improve the Critical Number.

Most companies these days are struggling to find enough people to chase all the opportunities in front of them. SRC, the birthplace of the Great Game of Business®, is no exception. That’s why SRC Holdings' CEO Jack Stack raised a lot of questions among attendees at last year’s Gathering of Games when he announced that SRC’s Critical Number™ for 2019 was going to be “people.” Jack’s point was that if SRC is going to be successful in the long run, it needs to become a better competitor in the “War for Talent.” One way to do so is for SRC to leverage The Game to create a line of sight where everyone inside the organization is focused on that goal. By making people their Critical Number, this is no longer just a problem for the human resource department to overcome: it becomes the focus for the entire company.

A workplace Huddle is more than just a staff meeting. Discussing the financials and critical elements of your business is a vital part of the Great Game of Business®, but more importantly, the Huddle is an opportunity to focus on the people responsible for those numbers and the story behind the numbers. In the Huddle Cycle, numbers are forecast and shared in a series of meetings from daily departmental check-ins to weekly company-wide gatherings, driving employee engagement and serving as a self-correcting measure to keep the company on the path toward achieving its goals. To better understand what's involved in creating a Huddle rhythm, let's break down the three main types of workplace Huddles: the Pre-Huddle, the Management Huddle, and Company-Wide Huddle.

  Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation (SRC) is well-known for High-Involvement Planning™ structure. Using this structure, we develop our strategic plans as a collective organization—involving literally everyone in the company, from hourly employees to management, in the planning process. While it might seem extensive, this process proves an integral component of our open-book management structure. Over the years, involving everyone at all levels of the company has also proven to repeatedly generate positive results. SRC uses four types of key planning that translate directly into our sustainable business success. Let’s dig deeper into each of these four key types of planning:

When you hear the words “cheap and easy”, you might not automatically think of rewarding and recognizing the folks on your team. However, that’s exactly what your employee recognition program should be: an affordable, habitual pattern. While there is value to an occasional blow-out celebration, your employees will feel just as appreciated with frequent, small reminders that they are important. Take a look at some of these super-simple ways to show appreciation to your employees and improve workplace culture.

Creating an informed and engaged workforce doesn't happen overnight...and isn't sustainable without the dedication and focus of the whole team. To help get your Game off on the right foot in the new year, here's a list of must-know tips from our best blogs to help The Game excel at your company.

You wouldn’t drive your car while only looking in the rear-view mirror…why run your business looking only at the past? This is the method many businesses have used for decades: close the books, review the numbers, repeat. While reviewing and analyzing company financials is an important process, you can’t change history. Forward financial forecasting is a way of communicating your company’s financials while keeping all eyes on the target. The purpose of forward forecasting is not to predict the future, but to influence it. This process minimizes surprises by having employees estimate or offer an educated opinion on what to expect.

At the Great Game of Business, we hope to not only transform businesses but also change the lives of the individual employees within those companies. Our goal is to transform the lives of 10 million people in the next 10 years. In this blog series, we are striving toward our 10-million-person goal by sharing stories of personal transformation resulting from the Great Game of Business and open-book management. Here, we feature Rob and Rachel Kelsey from King Maintenance Management in Springfield, Missouri, and how they brought the Great Game home to tackle their personal debts and reach their goal of starting their own business. 

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: