You and your team have come up with your Critical Number™: the one metric that represents a weakness or vulnerability that, if not addressed and corrected, will negatively impact the overall performance and long-term security of the business. But now what? How do you successfully start making things happen and impacting that number? With targeted day-to-day improvements that add up to long-term success. MiniGames™are an engaging, short-term activity designed to pursue an opportunity or correct a weakness within a company. They bring a laser focus to those everyday, small wins that put us that much closer to the big win and help drive short-term performance metrics that contribute to a year-end revenue goal or Critical Number. Take this example from Get in the Game. By focusing on something as simple as spoons, the chain reaction resulted in a $1 million impact in revenue in just one year at Kerbey Lane Cafe:
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Giving employees equity is one thing. Getting employees to think and act like owners is an entirely different story. That’s why SRC Holdings Corporation has an Ownership Culture Committee (OCC) responsible for challenging each company to stay true to the principles and practices of The Game and spreading the culture of ownership to every employee in the SRC family of companies. With two major changes in leadership, a dip in the core business, and no sales manager, SRC Logistics, a division of SRC, knew 2019 would hold its challenges. In order to meet their annual plan and the metrics they needed to have a successful business year, their five-member Ownership Culture Committee helped facilitate MiniGames™ across all departments, provide educational trainings, promote cost savings and revenue opportunities, and ultimately close the gaps and have a successful 2019 year. Here’s how SRC Logistics turned their year around:
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“Open-book management” was one of the popular phrases that got applied to the leadership system, The Great Game of Business®, that Jack Stack and his associates at SRC created back in 1983. But as Stack himself has said many times, most people don’t like to be managed. They like to be lead instead. In that spirit, perhaps it’s time we start thinking of Great Game™ as a form of what we might call “open-book leadership.” A fantastic example of open-book leadership in action comes from the front lines of a grocery store in Austin, Texas—H-E-B. Starting back in 2016, the large grocery chain began sending managers and employees—who H-E-B calls “partners”—to The Great Game of Business Conference to help inspire them in rolling out Great Game practices throughout the company.
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In more than 35 years practicing The Great Game of Business® at SRC, as well as three decades helping thousands of companies implement The Game in their own companies, we have determined the fastest, most efficient and most reliable path to Rapid Financial Results and Lasting Cultural Change™ follows a set process. We honed and developed the 10-Step Approach to GGOB Implementation to guide companies implementing The Great Game of Business in their organizations.
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Looking for some MiniGame™ inspiration? A MiniGame is a targeted day-to-day improvement challenge aimed at correcting a weakness or pursuing an opportunity in your company. We've got three examples from our the 2019 Great Game All-Star Team demonstrating how they took advantage of opportunities and found solutions to their efficiency problems in these MiniGames:
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In order to get the most out of your MiniGame™, it's essential to clearly communicate all elements of the MiniGame to the players to ensure that everyone is on the same page, has a line of sight toward the goal, can easily tell if they're winning or losing, and who's accountable. GUY Engineering, a professional services firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, presented an excellent example of a MiniGame at the "Show Me Your MiniGame" session at the 26th Annual Gathering of Games. Their MiniGame hits all the essential MiniGame elements: establishing a specific, timely, achievable goal through a MiniGame, making the information available for everyone, motivating their team with fun and memorable prizes, and rallying everyone around the goal to achieve results.
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Essential Ingredients was founded in May 1996 in Augusta, GA. This cosmetic chemical and supply distributor has been 100% employee-owned since 2011, after a long history of keeping the financial information and challenges locked away for only management to see. There was one problem: the employees had never had any input or understanding of the company financials, and the financial downturn that followed the ESOP launch proved it. Although an ESOP is a great way to give associates a stake in the outcome® of the company, is a sense of ownership enough? Essential Ingredients quickly learned that an employee culture and ownership mindset among the employees may be even more impactful. The Great Game™ has been the turning point that helped all EI associates think and act like the owners they are and see tremendous results impacting revenue growth, the company's ownership culture, savings equating to more than $750K in sales, and earned EI a spot on the 2018 All-Star Team.
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Global Recovery Corp, an engine and part supplier for the agricultural, highway trucking, industrial and automotive sectors, has seen the benefits of opening the books firsthand as a result of their dedication to the Great Game of Business® methodology. In addition to MiniGames™ like their recent $100K+ MiniGame featured on the GGOB Blog, GRC regularly practices the Huddle Cycle, rewards and recognition, and the High-Involvement Planning™ process to maximize engagement and involvement among their staff. Here are some of the most recent advancements in their Game that have helped them double their planned PBT for the first quarter at 55% above plan.
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Margins in the landscaping business continue to shrink—and it’s harder than ever to grow the top line as well. Willoway Nurseries, a leading US wholesale supplier of nursery products, understands this better than anyone. This nursery, founded in 1954, grows wholesale trees, shrubs, perennials, and seasonal color crops and ships to retailers and contractors across 26 states. With a customer base of more than 1,200 independent garden centers and landscape contractors, this company has personally seen the effects of industry-wide shrinking margins and a need for drastic change in how they operate their business. To confront these challenges, Willoway needed a way to gain efficiencies and improve quality. They decided to open the books to communicate the realities of operating a business to their team and what it takes to be profitable.
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Global Recovery Corp saw an opportunity to remove old inventory from storage and cash in on the inventory they weren't using. Four of GRC's employees were able to take this opportunity to generate $110,250 from a single MiniGame™ in less than 60 days. How? Company Background GRC was founded in 2013 as an engine and part supplier for the agricultural, highway trucking, industrial and automotive sectors.
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