Change is often uncomfortable, and adapting to it can be messy. Whether you’re implementing The Great Game of Business®, staging an acquisition, creating a new culture committee, or looking into employee ownership, consider these tips from CEOs that can help business leaders communicate your message in ways that build buy-in and rally your team behind the effort.   

  Excerpted from The Great Game of Business. The Great Fear #2 Is It Competitors You Fear—Or Your Own Employees?  Sad to say, a lot of companies hide their financials not because they're afraid of their competitors, but because they're afraid of their employees. They don't think people will understand the numbers, and there's some truth to that. If you don't show employees how to use financial information as a tool to help the company, they might well use it as a weapon against the company.

These three Great Game® videos illustrate an overview and the why behind Great Game methodology, highlight the origins of open-book management & the Great Game of Business®, and give a live example of one of our fundamental practices: the Huddle Cycle. Check them out to see how GGOB instills Lasting Cultural Change while promoting Rapid Financial Results™ in organizations across the globe. 

 Excerpted from The Great Game of Business. How do you get to the point where you can even think about democratizing the workplace—about being a transparent business that gives people access to the numbers and therewith the means to control their destiny? Not by swallowing your pride and admitting that you don't have all the answers and can't make all the decisions. No, it's by swallowing your fear. The Great Fear #1 What If Competitors Get Hold of Your Numbers?

Excerpted from The Great Game of Business. Like most American companies, International Harvester operated on the principle that everybody should focus on doing the specific job he or she was assigned. The corollary was that you should only give people the information required to do their specific jobs; everything else should be treated as some kind of corporate secret. Somehow it had become common wisdom that this was a good way to run a business—in fact, the only right way to run a business. That is the biggest myth of all.

From characteristics of successful GGOB practitioners, to forecasting tips, to biggest mistakes and how to avoid them, our Great Game® coaches tackle these common issues in this segment of "Ask the Coaches."

Company culture is one of the most important values individuals look at when searching for a job. That's why Great Game practitioners often spread the word about their open-book and transparent business practices, and as a result not only draw in prospective talent, but attract the right employees with compatible values—those that will thrive in their Great Game culture. GGOB practitioners showcase their unique culture to tell their customers and staff—new and old—the story of what they're all about. Many companies capitalize on their practice of the Great Game of Business® in job postings and their organization's web pages as hiring tool, an asset to retain current employees, and way to communicate their organization's values to clients. 

Excerpted from The Great Game of Business. The common wisdom is that people should prove themselves before they get promoted. I always promoted people as fast as I could. Sometimes I promoted them right out of my department. I liked giving people opportunities, and I didn't want them to get bored and stale, but I had an ulterior motive as well: it made my job a lot easier to have friends all over the company.

Excerpted from The Great Game of Business. It's very common for managers, especially new managers, to think they're supposed to have solutions for any problems that arise on their watch. That kind of thinking can get you into deep trouble. For one thing, it sets you up to fail because no one has all the answers. For another, it undermines your credibility because everyone knows that no one has all the answers. It also isolates you from people. A big pitfall of managers at all levels is the notion they have to be perfect. I know supervisors who can't hold a meeting because they're afraid someone might ask a question they can't answer. As I mentioned earlier, I know CEOs who can't leave their offices unless their ties are straight and every hair is in place. Managers like that wind up hating their jobs. They feel they have to live up to an image, to be an idol, to be a representative of a position.

The Great Game of Business® is not for everyone. It's for business leaders looking for true transformation—those who fantasize about a business life in which others share the burdens often reserved for owners and executive staff. It's for those who view prosperity as a journey, not just an outcome. It's for leaders prepared to learn, teach, and share in The Game. 

Excerpted from The Great Game of Business. We've all heard how you have to be an S.O.B. to succeed in business. How you have to step on other people to get results. How it's okay to throw your weight around because it's a tough world and you win through intimidation. It's all a crock. I've worked on the shop floor. Believe me, nobody there wants to hear a guy telling you to bust your butt if he's rolling around in a Mercedes and beating up the people he works with. When you flaunt what you've got, when you intimidate, when you treat people badly, you lose power. I've watched guys like that throughout my life. I've learned it's just a matter of time before they get theirs.

Vontae Douglas' journey at Tasty Catering began with working part-time at small summer events. A combination of business education, financial literacy training, and coworkers close enough to be considered family have transformed Vontae's summer job into a career in a field that he never expected. Financial literacy training and working with the numbers behind the business was new for Vontae, but this business training and education opened doors to a completely new work experience. He and his team have been taught to understand what the financial numbers mean, how to read them, and how to individually respond to impact future results and the success of the company.