This is an employee engagement message from the heart. I’m doing my best to strip away HR-speak, academic jargon, and journalistic style in an attempt to actually reach crazy-busy front-line managers who’ve heard it all before. It’s my vain attempt to actually influence someone. Despite the best intentions of so many, the truth about employee engagement isn’t getting out. You need to understand…

I hear it almost every day: “But we are different…” or “That could never work with our organization because…” Five years ago as the CEO of a well-established nonprofit agency, I used those excuses when approached by one of my board members, Tim Stack, about using the Great Game of Business in my nonprofit. Tim was the General Manager of one of the SRC subsidiaries and literally grew up with the Great Game of Business. Over the next four years, he worked one-on-one with me to break down all of the misconceptions that I had about why nonprofits could not apply the same principles found in The Great Game of Business. I had a Master’s in Nonprofit Management and was never exposed to the concepts that Tim was discussing with me.

Through the years, the team at SRC and The Great Game of Business have seen our share of doubters, disbelievers, critics and skeptics - everyone from CEOs, to managers, to hourly employees who said open-book management couldn't work... that teaching employees about business was crazy…that transparency was not necessary in business. Some of the biggest disbelievers came from right here at SRC…the birthplace of open-book management! One doubter with a particularly fascinating story is Denise Bredfeldt, a former transmission rebuilder at SRC during the early days of The Great Game of Business. To be fair, Denise lived through the dismal buyout of International Harvester; a time when trust and morale were at an all-time low. Before SRC was founded, Denise even circulated an underground newsletter mocking the company culture and management, and she wasn’t about to jump on the open-book bandwagon.

In 1983, International Harvester was in deep financial trouble. Jack Stack and his fellow managers at the company’s engine remanufacturing facility in Springfield, Missouri, were scrambling to protect 119 jobs at the plant. Fast forward 36 years and SRC is struggling to find enough people to sustain the business over the long term.

  At the 26th Annual Gathering of Games, we had the opportunity to host Gregg Stebben from ForbesBooks Radio as he interviewed participants from this year's conference. In this interview he highlights Process Triage, a business process improvement system founded by Joseph (Rosey) Rosenberger.  "Triage is a way to deal with a high volume of problems with the objective to assess the type of solution quickly so scarce resources focus on the most valuable good first." Check out this interview with Rosey below to see how his company has applied this methodology in businesses ranging from start-ups to Fortune® 500 companies.

At the 26th Annual Gathering of Games, we had the opportunity to host Gregg Stebben from ForbesBooks Radio as he interviewed participants from this year's conference. In this interview, he highlights Amy's Ice Creams. Check out his interview with the Founder and President, Amy Simmons, to find out how this Texas company helps develop and educate employees for their future careers and personal lives.

At the 26th Annual Gathering of Games, we had the opportunity to host Gregg Stebben from ForbesBooks Radio as he interviewed participants from this year's conference. In this interview, he highlights HingePoint, which provides consulting and implementation of software systems for businesses. Check out his interview with the founder and CEO of HingePoint, Bryce Finnerty, to find out how this company helps businesses grow. 

At the 26th Annual Gathering of Games, we had the opportunity to host Gregg Stebben from ForbesBooks Radio as he interviewed participants from this year's conference. In this interview, he highlights Peterson Trucks, a company that went from losing millions of dollars to three-time Great Game All-Star Champions. Check out his interview with Executive Vice President, Tom Bagwell.

At the 26th Annual Gathering of Games, we had the opportunity to host Gregg Stebben from ForbesBooks Radio as he interviewed participants from this year's conference. In this interview, he highlights Venturity Financial Partners which was selected as this year's Rookie of the Year.  This award recognizes a company that's been practicing The Great Game of Business for less than two years and has achieved remarkable results. Check out his interview with Deanna Walker and Chris McKee from Venturity below! Sneak Peek: What's Included in this Podcast The "Why" at Venturity Financial Partners and how they make accounting sexy. How all business issues have an accounting implication. Challenges their leadership team faced in revealing financials with the rest of the business, and the fears they had to overcome to start The Game. How company culture has transformed as a result of GGOB and opening the books.  How implementation has changed Venturity's hiring process.  How the leadership team now spends their time after implementing the Game.  Changes Chris and Deanna have seen among team members' interactions and relationships with clients. Venturity becoming a living laboratory- opening Huddles to clients and service providers. Plans to further the Great Game in their company and across Texas. Listen to the full podcast to find out how this All-Star company will continue to take their Game to the next level.

At the 26th Annual Gathering of Games, we had the opportunity to host Gregg Stebben from ForbesBooks Radio as he interviewed participants from this year's conference. Check out his interview with Thomas Hill below!     Thomas Hill III has been involved with the family business his entire life. Kimray is a family owned and operated manufacturing company in Oklahoma City.  In his interview, Hill explains the ups and downs of taking over the family business established by his grandfather in 1948. His story, found in his book Recovering Leadership, reveals his path of running the company with a "wrong belief system", his termination and re-establishment as CEO at Kimray, and what he learned to come back as a better leader. 

  At the 26th Annual Gathering of Games, we had the opportunity to host Gregg Stebben from ForbesBooks Radio as he interviewed participants from this year's conference. Check out his interview with David Stern below!     Dr. Stern is CEO of Practice Velocity, an Illinois company providing software solutions for more than 1,200 urgent care clinics in all 50 states. This software includes computer tablet-based diagnostic record systems, specialized billing systems, practice management software and a patented record template system. Stern was not always in the software business. His career began in the medical field as a physician, where he discovered the need for this specialized software in the medical field and urgent care facilities.

At the 26th Annual Gathering of Games, we had the opportunity to host Gregg Stebben from ForbesBooks Radio as he interviewed participants from this year's conference. Check out his interview with Shawn Burcham below!