I might have raised a few eyebrows this past September when I gave my speech at the 26th Gathering of Games in Dallas. I talked about how we were now fighting a war for talent and that, thanks to retiring Baby Boomers and a hot economy, we now face a critical shortage of people. Without people, we will not be able to keep growing the business by taking advantage of the opportunities ahead of us. It’s our belief that by the year 2020, the companies with the best people will dominate their markets. In my speech, I explained that the Critical Number™ for our business for 2019 was going to be “people.” I thought that some members of the audience started to think they were at the wrong conference. (Was this some kind of HR seminar?)

Effectively playing The Game in a company with multiple locations can be a challenging due to the complicated logistics of conducting Huddles in the workplace, playing MiniGames™, and communicating information with dispersed workforces. Check out the creative ways these two Great Game practitioners use technology to bring their people together:

We often hear it, “You need to give people a sense of ownership—the feeling that they are being treated as if they are an owner, even if they aren’t.” A sense of ownership can include input into decisions on how the job is done, open-book management, meetings with the boss, celebrations of wins, and other techniques well known to Great Game players. But is a sense of ownership enough?

Attracting and retaining talent is expensive. Period. As a Great Game player, you get it - every dollar counts. You also understand that The Great Game of Business is about money and people. So, how about using technology to save you and your team valuable time, and reduce costs in Human Resources? With it taking an average of 40 days and over $4,000 to make a hire and an average cost of $30,000 for losing a good hire, securing qualified talent in a competitive market is no doubt pricey. Investing in digital tools is a great chance to reduce these costs and save time when attracting and retaining talent.

MiniGames™ are short-term improvement challenges designed to correct a weakness or pursue an opportunity in the company. This targeted day-to-day progress adds up to long-term success, every small win putting you closer to the big win or goal. MiniGames are one of the greatest tools for driving improvement and engagement in your organization, so we asked you to share your company's best MiniGame at this year's annual conference. At the Gathering of Games, our practitioners had a chance to pitch their most successful MiniGame to a group of seasoned judges to see how it stacked up. Our judges selected two finalists to present on the Gathering main stage to share their best MiniGame with the entire conference. Check out our participants' and winners' presentations, along with our Minigame Toolkit below to help you get started or improve your company's MiniGames!

I had the privilege of attending my first Gathering of Games conference this year, as a representative from ForbesBooks and ForbesBooks Radio. I’ve been to my share of business conferences, but Gathering of Games was unlike any I’d attended in the course of my career. It was thrilling to record interviews with so many of you and hear your stories in depth. As an “outsider,” there were a few takeaways from the conference that truly resonated with me:

Every year at The Annual Gathering of Games, we recognize the "best of the best" in open-book management with the All-Star Awards. At the 26th Annual Gathering of Games, the GGOB community celebrated the 18th All-Star Team and announced this year's All-Star Champions. Check out the flipbook to read case studies of each member of our Team, and join us in congratulating our 2018 All-Star Champions!

One of the questions that I hear most leaders ask is, “How do I keep employees engaged?” Is money effective? How about bonuses, or a promotion? As most of you know, very rarely do these work, especially in the long term. Usually it’s the simple things in life that works the best. Remember, you are dealing with people. What works for employees works for spouses, children, siblings, and your friends. Below are 3 very simple ideas on engaging and motivating employees. These ideas are simple, but still require focus and take the time to implement.

Want to learn how to enhance how you play the Great Game of Business? Open-book management is a powerful tool to grow profitable businesses that benefit all employees and stakeholders. At the core is financial literacy, which includes financial forecasts that are reported in weekly Huddles and presented on white boards, so everyone can follow the action and keep score to know if they are winning or losing The Game. We want to show you how to go beyond traditional desktop tools like Excel for financial forecasting and scoreboards.