A company owner asks employees what he can do to make their work easier. The employees come up with the idea of providing mobile hotspots for employees who spend a lot of their time traveling. The owner, who is grateful to the team and what they do for the company, does the research and gets a cost for the hotspots and mentions it during their weekly huddle. The employees speak up and decline the hotspots saying it cost the company too much money and wasn’t worth the investment, but they thank the owner for being willing to support them.

Many companies beginning their GGOB journey ask, How often should your team Huddle? What does a Huddle look like? Those just starting out with the Great Game process often fear that these Huddles will be “too time consuming” or “just another meeting.” The truth is that Huddles, when done well, will actually save you time because they improve communication and the execution of tasks. Here, we've broken down each type of Huddle:

As a grandfather to eleven beautiful grandchildren, I spend a lot of weekends out on the soccer and baseball fields watching these kids tear around. I think that’s why a scene from the movie Parental Guidance, starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, continues to stick with me. Billy, who plays a professional baseball announcer, is sitting in the stands, watching his grandson pitch for his Little League baseball team. The grandson rears back and throws a pitch, and the hitter swings and misses. Billy is ecstatic as he calls out, “Strike one!” Then, as the hitter swings through the second pitch, Billy yells out, “Strike two!” Now he’s really excited as the third pitch comes in, and, as the batter misses yet again, Billy stands up and calls, “Strike three! Yer outta there!” But nobody else seems to notice as the pitcher, catcher, and umpire all get back into position. That’s when Billy calls out to the umpire, “Hey, Blue, three strikes! He’s out!”

Originally published in AEPNow on Monday, January 4, 2021 A Shreveport line mechanic installs new equipment on a pole near Line Avenue. Shreveport construction crews are completing capital projects at a faster pace than ever before thanks to a strategy that helps them understand the financial impact of their work. This year, the Shreveport District initiated a weekly schedule of pole replacements and other projects to build long-term assets.

Back in mid-March 2020, Chris Hurley, the co-owner and CEO of Russell & Abbott Heating and Cooling in Maryville, TN, was in a dark place. The COVID-19 pandemic had begun its rampage and the country was beginning to shut down in response.

Winners are fanatics about keeping score. They understand that if you’re not keeping score, you’re not playing for real. Whether in business or in a game, the primary objective of keeping score is to consistently inform the players if they are winning or losing and who is accountable... moving the process of keeping score from “them measuring us” to “us measuring ourselves.” Keeping score gives people the critical feedback they need to make the right adjustments, improve performance, and win the game.

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.

There’s an old quote attributed to Peter Drucker that says, “What gets measured gets improved”. While I firmly believe this is true, it’s important to understand that what you measure is equally as important as how and why you measure it.

Newbies to the Great Game, seasoned company owners, and CEOs alike are often bothered by this question: How do I get my leaders and front-line employees more engaged in The Game? A few years back, I was asking this question at my own company, Tasty Catering. While our company soared immediately following the implementation of GGOB, our Game engagement faded after about eight months. Although financial improvements were still evident on our scoreboard, I could tell by the faces and body language in our weekly Huddle that something was “off.” We needed a boost.