Leading in an open-book company requires leaders who can translate transparency into performance by coaching ownership, building trust, and connecting daily actions to the financial scoreboard. Traditional command-and-control habits create drag; open-book leadership creates alignment, accountability, and real business results.
Many leadership teams already share numbers and strategy, yet still feel a frustrating gap: people see the score, but don’t consistently change their behavior. A supervisor may post the P&L and talk about the Critical Number, but day-to-day decisions still look the same. That’s the core pain point Leading the Game is built to solve.
In The Great Game of Business® system, information is power only when leaders know how to use it to teach and reinforce ownership. Research from Gallup continues to show that highly engaged teams deliver 18–23% higher profitability than disengaged teams, but engagement doesn’t happen by accident. It is engineered through intentional leadership beliefs and behaviors.
Open-book companies ask leaders to play a different role: less “directive manager,” more “connector.” Leaders have to help people see how their choices move the needle on revenue, margin, cash, and bonus plans. They must recognize wins publicly, explain misses without blame, and invite ideas from the front line. Those are learned skills, not personality traits.
That is why the Leading the Game virtual cohort is focused on building a shared leadership playbook for transparent company cultures. Over eight weeks, supervisors, managers, and emerging leaders learn the specific practices that turn The Game from “something we do” into the way the business runs every day.
The Leading the Game virtual cohort is an eight-week, facilitator-led leadership development experience that combines short online lessons, live training sessions, and real-world application in your own company. Participants meet weekly for about 90 minutes and apply new tools between sessions.
The cohort is delivered through Great Game GO, The Great Game of Business online Learning Hub. Each participant gets dedicated access to the course, live session links, downloadable tools, and reflection guides. This structure keeps the time commitment realistic while ensuring that every concept is used—not just discussed.
Sessions are highly interactive, not passive webinars. Leaders join a small community of peers from other open-book organizations who are wrestling with similar challenges: inconsistent huddles, scoreboards that don’t drive behavior, supervisors who are great operators but untested coaches. Breakout discussions and skill-practice segments help people translate ideas into their own environment.
Between sessions, participants test specific leadership behaviors on the job. For example, a manager might run a new style of huddle that begins with a recognition moment and ends with a quick forecast conversation. Another participant might try a coaching question framework during a difficult performance conversation. They then bring back what worked—and what didn’t—to the cohort for feedback.
Because the experience is cohort-based, your leaders are not learning in isolation. They hear concrete examples from other companies that have implemented The Game for years, see how others are sustaining MiniGames™, and learn how recognition and rewards are used as strategic levers, not random perks. This combination of community, structure, and practice is what turns theory into lasting leadership habits.
The Leading the Game cohort is ideal when your organization already practices open-book management (or is in implementation) and you want your leaders to show up with a consistent, aligned approach to leading The Game. It focuses on daily leadership behavior—not just high-level concepts.
If you hear comments like “we share the numbers, but people still wait to be told what to do” or “our huddles feel like reporting, not ownership,” your leaders likely need new tools, not more information. This program is built for supervisors, managers, and emerging leaders who influence people, communication, and change, whether they sit in operations, finance, HR, or front-line roles.
Leadership teams also use the cohort as a reset or refresh when The Game has been in place for a few years. For example, one client sent an entire cross-functional design team through the experience to rebuild a shared leadership language ahead of a major growth push. Coming out of the cohort, they redefined how they recognize wins, re-energized scoreboards, and clarified expectations around forecasting.
Because the program is virtual and time-bounded, it works well for organizations that struggle to pull leaders away from the front line for long, multi-day events. The weekly 90-minute cadence allows learning to fit around production schedules, seasonal peaks, and customer demands while still maintaining enough intensity to change behavior.
If your organization is new to The Great Game, the cohort can be a powerful complement to coaching or implementation. It prepares leaders to “walk the talk” of transparency and ownership from the start, rather than bolting leadership behaviors on later.
Each week of Leading the Game blends focused content with hands-on practice so leaders examine their beliefs, experiment with new behaviors, and receive feedback in real time. The agenda moves from mindset to daily application.
Week 1 focuses on leadership beliefs—the assumptions you hold about people, performance, and transparency. Participants complete a self-assessment and identify one belief that is currently limiting their impact. For example, a common belief is “my team can’t handle the financials,” which quietly shapes how much information gets shared.
Week 2 turns beliefs into visible behavior. Leaders map how their current routines—how they open meetings, respond to mistakes, or handle recognition—either reinforce or undermine an ownership mindset. They leave with one small behavior experiment to run before the next session.
Weeks 3 and 4 explore the core characteristics of Great Game leaders and introduce the Four Pillars of Leadership as the system that holds those characteristics together. Participants use real scenarios from their own huddles, MiniGames™, and project teams to see where each pillar is strong or weak.
Weeks 5–7 zoom in on the pillars themselves: Relationship Builder, Strategic Thinker, Change Leader, and Talent Developer. Leaders practice specific techniques like asking open-ended financial questions in huddles, facilitating a quick “teach the business” moment, and coaching a team through a change without creating fear.
Week 8 is a capstone where participants present a simple “Leading the Game in Practice” plan. One supervisor, for example, might commit to implementing a new recognition rhythm tied to scoreboard results; another might redesign a weekly huddle to include forward-looking forecasting from front-line staff.
The Four Pillars of Leadership—Relationship Builder, Strategic Thinker, Change Leader, and Talent Developer—provide a simple, shared framework your leaders can use to evaluate and strengthen how they lead The Game. Each pillar connects directly to open-book practices.
Relationship Builder is about trust and connection. In an open-book company, leaders are asking people to engage with sensitive information and take ownership of results. That only works when people feel safe, valued, and heard. In the cohort, participants practice recognition that is specific, timely, and tied directly to business outcomes, not generic praise.
Strategic Thinker helps leaders connect daily actions to long-term direction. Participants learn to tell the “why” behind the numbers—how today’s scrap rate affects margin, or how a slight improvement in days sales outstanding improves cash and bonus potential. They practice translating strategy into simple, visual scoreboards and MiniGames that everyone can influence.
Change Leader focuses on creating momentum instead of fear when the business shifts. Leaders explore real examples of changes—new product lines, reorganizations, or cost initiatives—and practice communicating those changes with transparency and purpose. The goal is to turn uncertainty into a chance for employees to step up as problem-solvers.
Talent Developer is about growing the next generation of leaders, not just extracting performance. Participants build basic coaching habits: asking better questions, delegating ownership of metrics, and giving feedback that builds confidence and capability. An operations manager might, for instance, transition a key scoreboard from being “my report” to “our team’s scoreboard,” with rotating employees presenting the numbers.
These four pillars become a practical evaluation tool after the cohort ends. Many companies incorporate the pillars into performance conversations or leadership development plans, using them as a common language for what “good leadership” looks like in an open-book company.
The next Leading the Game virtual cohort runs May 6–July 1, with one 90-minute live session each week, delivered entirely online through the Great Game GO Learning Hub. Space is limited to keep sessions interactive, so early registration is encouraged.
To explore whether the cohort is a fit for your leaders, start by reviewing the program details on the official page: Leading the Game Cohort. There you’ll find an overview of the agenda, testimonials, and additional context about how the program supports Great Game implementations.
If you already know which leaders you’d like to enroll, you can submit an interest form directly from the page to request pricing, confirm dates, and reserve seats. Many organizations choose to register a small cross-functional group—such as a plant manager, HR leader, and front-line supervisor—so they can reinforce each other’s new behaviors back on the job.
Questions about cohort logistics, pricing, or how this training fits with your business needs can be directed to the team at info@ggob.com or 800.386.2752. A brief discovery conversation can help you clarify goals and determine whether this is the right next step or if another Great Game workshop or training engagement would be a better starting point.
If your leaders need a clear, proven playbook for turning transparency into measurable results, the Leading the Game virtual cohort is designed to give them exactly that—tools they can apply in the very next huddle, coaching conversation, or MiniGame they lead.