Each year, at The Annual Gathering of Games, we recognize several companies who represent the “best of the best” in open-book management practice by honoring these companies with an All-Star Award. This prestigious award recognizes and celebrates the remarkable achievements of companies from around the globe that have fully embraced the principles of open-book management and The Great Game of Business, and have demonstrated outstanding results. Throughout the next few weeks, we’d like to introduce you to each of these companies in hopes that their experience will inspire you as you continue to explore open-book management.

In our last post, we showed you an infographic that showcased recent research on "What Makes Employees Happy." So what's so great about happy employees? Part two for our series, "The Happy Secret to Better Work," shows the hidden benefits of happy workers for both the employer and the employee.

Through the years, The Great Game of Business, Inc. has worked with news entities, research organizations and academic institutions who are interested in studying the impact of open-book management. Currently, GGOB is proud to support the research of a senior at Yale College who is leading the effort to systematically evaluate the effect of open-book management on corporate performance. He is currently inviting managers of open-book firms to complete an anonymous, online questionnaire.

Each year, at The Annual Gathering of Games, we recognize several companies who represent the “best of the best” in open-book management practice by honoring these companies with an All-Star Award. This prestigious award recognizes and celebrates the remarkable achievements of companies from around the globe that have fully embraced the principles of open-book management and The Great Game of Business, and have demonstrated outstanding results. Throughout the next few weeks, we’d like to introduce you to each of these companies in hopes that their experience will inspire you as you continue to explore open-book management.

What is the most cost-effective incentive that is a proven driving force behind employee engagement? The answer is simple: recognition. Engaging employees is becoming increasingly more important to employers because engaged employees tend to be better workers and stay with a company longer. We've collected some great infographics that sum up the current research on employee engagement so you could have them all at your fingertips. Because each infographic is packed with useful information, we've made divided them up into a five-part series to make them a bit more digestible. Below, you'll find part one-of-five; we hope you find the information in the series both helpful and enlightening.

In October 2013, Jack Stack spoke at the Inc5000 conference where he revealed several unforeseen benefits of practicing open-book management. Inc.'s Burt Helm summarized these benefits in a recent Inc. article: 5 Unexpected Benefits of Opening Your Books. In the article, Helm noted the following specific benefits: The Team Discovers Its Value Leaders Are Born Sharp Questions Improve Financial Statements Employees Bring Know-How Home The Entire Community Benefits

“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.” ― Confucius About ten years ago in my past life – as CEO of a medical equipment company which I have since sold – we were exhibiting at a trade show. An attendee walked by, checking out our booth. As I started to introduce myself, he exclaimed with a scowl, “Our business goes to the lowest priced vendor! Price is everything!” If his goal was to set the tone for our interaction, he succeeded. I’m rarely at a loss for words, but I had never encountered anyone so obviously hell-bent on turning his organization into the home of crazy-low prices. The one positive outcome of my blissfully brief meeting with him was the eventual inspiration for this article.

“Can you help me?” a woman whispers during the intermission. “There’s a person in this room I despise so much that I can’t even look at him.” I inquire, “Do you want the ‘fix-it,’ approach, the easy-to-do-but-won’t-really-change-anything answer…or do you want the transformational, hard-to-do-but-I’m-serious-about-changing solution?” She’s desperate, and is ready to get past this barrier once and for all.

Greene County, MO is the first county government organization to attempt to apply the theories of the Great Game of Business to their organizational culture. Unfortunately, this does not come without some new barriers. Being a government organization, Greene County cannot give out bonuses or gain buy-in through equity. How does Greene County expect to move forward in The Great Game without one of its key components?

Having an ESOP at your company means that some of your company’s stock will be held in the retirement savings accounts of your employees. Is this something a business owner might live to regret? One of the first questions raised by business owners about ESOPs is the issue of corporate control. After all, the employees have stock. Could they make trouble? Would it be inmates running the asylum? The answer, in a word, is no.