The Great Game of Business Blog

Sign up to receive our blog posts conveniently in your email box

Maintaining Culture and Profits When Faced With Adversity

Business is always shifting. Economic trends change, technology evolves, and generational workforces move in and out. The one thing companies can always be sure of is adversity. So how do companies manage all the chaos? With today's supply chain issues, more people exiting the workforce than ever before, and the war for talent at an all-time high, how do business leaders possibly keep up with company culture and better yet, ensure they're making a profit?
Read More

Five Ways to Create a Stronger Remote Workforce Through The Great Game of Business

Feb 8, 2022 by Ivy Shelden 4 Comments
You never thought you’d be here–navigating your business through a global pandemic that has changed nearly everything about the way we work.  You’ve learned to cope with the quarantines, the safety protocols and the financial uncertainty. Still, now you’re facing one more potential pivot: the switch to a hybrid or fully remote workforce. You’re thinking: What happens when my employees are no longer together as a team? Will they lose motivation? Will communication break down? Will our bottom line suffer? Maybe you’re already experiencing some of these issues–but it doesn’t have to be this way.  The core principles of the Great Game of Business®–educating and empowering employees to think and act like owners, and engaging them by giving them a Stake in the Outcome®—can help eliminate the risk of disengagement that comes with remote work. 
Read More

28 Awesome MiniGame Ideas Generated by Practitioners

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.
Read More

Why We Are Giving Associates Incentive to get the COVID Vaccine

It’s become apparent that we celebrated the end of the pandemic a little early. Believe me, I was one of the first people who couldn’t wait to rip my mask off. I hate wearing them. You can imagine the sense of relief I felt when I finally got my second shot. Then, as the COVID numbers dropped, and dropped some more, we could finally take our masks off. It seemed like we had really turned the corner on this thing.
Read More

It’s Going To Take More Than Sign-On Bonuses To Win The War For Talent

Jul 13, 2021 by Darren Dahl 0 Comments
The War for Talent is now in full swing. As the economy continues to reopen, companies have begun hiring again in earnest—driving the unemployment rate closer to pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, the number of open jobs in the U.S.—an estimated 9.2 million—is now breaking records. It’s one of those rare times in recent history where the number of job openings exceeds the number of unemployed people actually looking for a job.
Read More

Give People a Chance to Win Early and Often

Those of you who have already identified your Critical Number™ (company-wide goal) and the drivers that go along with that goal, will find that MiniGames™ are a great way to bring a laser focus to create small, everyday wins that put you that much closer to the big win. If you, are new to Great Game you might start learning more about how to identify your Critical Number.
Read More

And The Winner Is…

Mar 2, 2021 by Jack Stack 2 Comments
How Healthy Competition Drives Continuous Creativity And Productivity At SRC By Jack Stack I’m a big believer in the positive power of competition. I believe it’s a universal truth that all people like to win—and hate to lose. But as I’ve written about before, losing is also an opportunity to learn and to improve. So, why wouldn’t we try to build in some of that healthy competition into the workplace? To take some of the drudgery out of our day-to-day routines and spice things up with some competition? At a fundamental level, that’s what The Great Game of Business® is all about.
Read More

Creating Wins with MiniGames

"Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is." - Vince Lombardi Part of the magic behind The Great Game of Business® comes from tapping into the universal human desire to win. Give people a chance to win early and win often, and you'll capture their interest, keep them engaged and drive the success of your business. Whether you are just starting your Great Game journey, or just looking for a boost, inject some fun and focus by launching some departmental MiniGames™ and create the wins your team needs.
Read More

Do You Play The Game...Even When You Lose?

Jun 30, 2020 by Robert Isherwood 0 Comments
I’d like to tell you a story. Let me begin with a disclaimer, it’s not about winning big or how The Great Game of Business® instantly made us hugely profitable and loads of fun. It’s a terrible story about losing. Also, I have not been involved in open-book management or The Great Game of Business very long. Truth be told, I’m about as green as anyone can be. Here’s the 10 second backstory – AMBAC International has been manufacturing precision engine components for over 100 years. The men and women on the shop floor know what they’re doing. I’ll tell anyone they’re the best in the world, and I’ve got the data to back that up. But, the shop floor wasn’t really connected to the ‘business’ and everyone suffered from poor corporate performance as a result. In fact, we were in real danger of losing the company.
Read More

Four Reasons to Play MiniGames™

Once you’ve seen the transformational power of The Great Game of Business®, your team will begin to grab onto the gamification aspects; and along with it, the language. Words like Huddles and scoreboards will become part of the vernacular of your organization. To us, MiniGames™ are a powerful way to describe short-term, self-funding incentive plans that will make a huge impact on your organization in 90 days or less. They are designed to affect a change, reinforce business training, build teamwork, and develop a winning attitude—all of which lead to success for both your company and your people.
Read More

Lists by Topic

see all

About The Great Game of Business

Our approach to running a company was developed to help close one of the biggest gaps in business: the gap between managers and employees. We call our open-book approach The Great Game of Business. What lies at the heart of The Game is a very simple proposition: The best, most efficient, most profitable way to operate a business is to give everybody in the company a voice in saying how the company is run and a stake in the outcome. Let us teach you how to develop a culture of ownership, where employees think, act and feel like owners.