Success happens frequently when playing the Great Game of Business. Whether it is winning a MiniGame or hitting your goals, there are plenty of opportunities to accelerate these results. To be even more successful, what we say when things go right is important (Gable, Gonzaga & Strachman, 2006). After a success, there are four types of responses:

Conferences like the Gathering of Games are incredible opportunities to expand your knowledge base, find solutions to business challenges and build lasting connections with professionals who share common values and goals. But, as is true of daily life, if you don’t structure your time wisely, chances are it won’t be as well spent as possible. What’s your game plan for maximizing your experience at the Gathering of Games this year? Don’t have a strategy yet? Read on…

When the leadership team asked us a year and a half ago to lead Venturity’s Great Game journey, we weren’t sure what to expect. As a group, we all had visions of success, but also threads of trepidation because a lot of the success was riding on our shoulders. This was a huge responsibility and required us to stretch our own leadership and team-building skills. We knew at the beginning that we would be responsible for leading the entire Venturity team in the Great Game of Business® and helping to set and continue the overall direction. We spent hours every week in those initial months understanding the Great Game and creating it for Venturity. What we didn’t realize at the time was the powerful impact the Great Game of Business would have on the culture of our organization overall, and how this would translate into much more than financial success.

It is not uncommon for every business owner to start a discussion about their P&L statement with “well, that net income number is not correct,” then go on to list all of the things they would change if their accountant didn't make them do it that way. Business owners need to take back responsibility and control of their financial reporting in financial literacy training and follow these simple principles to make their P&L a useful document.

(Excerpted from the Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading, Part 1: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business) It’s been almost thirty years since I first started learning about visioning in the context of workplace leadership. At the time that I heard about it, I can’t say I was particularly open to the concept. I don’t think it came up in any sort really formal way—it was likely more just hearing about it from people like my partner Paul and others around me who had some experience working with it. At best I was probably moderately receptive, and more than likely, almost actively resistant at first.

Many of our favorite funny celebrities got their start in comedy with the famous improvisational theater group Second City in Chicago, Illinois. The rules for improv turn out to be great guidelines for anyone involved in various types of team-based work. Using the rules to improvisational comedy may seem like a strange way to improve your culture and business, but the foundations of effective improv are also the foundations for effective communication and teamwork: creativity and innovative thinking, active listening, open communication, trust, reciprocity, engagement, effective leadership, responding to mistakes or failures ... the list goes on.

As Jack Stack says, “One of the challenges in leadership is you need to know when to push, when to hug, when to cheer, when to boo, and when to kick people in the butt.” For any individual in a leadership role, there are endless responsibilities, people and tasks to keep in order. We've compiled a checklist of tips and questions to help our Great Game leaders reflect on their leadership styles and stay on track. Check out our best practices for GGOB leaders below!

Attracting and retaining top talent is the #1 challenge most businesses face in today's competitive marketplace. Organizations that practice OBM (open-book management) have a major competitive edge that they should use to their advantage in all recruiting efforts.

United Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is new to The Great Game of Business®. After several employees had read the book, they decided to take the leap into open-book management earlier this year at their two locations including more than 300 employees. United hopes to embrace their employees' excitement for transparency and OBM, keep this energy going and continuously better communication within the company by implementing the Great Game of Business. As United is rolling out the Great Game to their company, their leaders are using a more innovative approach to introducing GGOB practices to their employees by releasing fun and informative videos. We spoke with Sarah Lambert in Process Improvement about how they have begun the process at United. Check out their videos and our Q&A below!

You may know that Zingerman’s Roadhouse is a full-service restaurant in Ann Arbor, MI, with a reputation for really good American food and great service - and you many also know that we’ve practiced open-book management since opening in 2003. That’s not to say we’ve always done it perfectly, at any of the Zingerman’s businesses! One thing we’ve learned time and again is that the culture of the huddle is a good pulse on how the business is doing overall, and that’s even more true when you’re talking about the team in the kitchen.