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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
We all have an innate need to win, particularly in sports or recreational activities. But think about work. Do we work to win? We should. Chuck Coonradt realized that long ago. He believed that work, if treated like a game, could encourage us to win at what we do. Chuck’s belief has now become a winning philosophy and has turned into a successful consulting firm called The Game of Work.
But making work a game seems to run contrary to what we learn early in life—that work is serious business; the company depends on you to keep things moving, to take a serious attitude toward your work.
Through research, Chuck has discovered that not everyone takes a serious attitude. He found in most workplaces there’s someone who seems to lead people without a conscious effort. As if in a game, that person might keep track of his or her team’s accomplishments—such as when someone does an outstanding job.
Chuck believes keeping score in a positive way is important for providing instant feedback and motivation, which helps to improve productivity and profitability. He says keeping track of mistakes and errors just creates an overall negative feeling. “When you measure errors, you produce a lot of yelling and screaming or similar negatives,” he said. “The system violates a fundamental rule of behavior: we must reinforce behavior we want repeated rather than getting more of the behavior we didn’t want in the first place.”
Chuck should know. He’s written four books relating to the topic and is a founding member and frequent lecturer at the School of Entrepreneurship at BYU’s Marriott School of Management.
In sharing his expertise through The Game of Work, Chuck is joined by Rex Houze, former president of Leadership Management Inc. in Texas; Sir Dr. Richard Williams, former director of training for American Stores who has a Ph.D. from Oxford and who has also been knighted; and a dozen other people in sales, administration and training. The Game of Work offers lectures, an executive retreat program called Ski And Scheme and in-house training programs created specifically for the companies they train all over the world.
Through its unique philosophy, Chuck Coonradt’s The Game of Work has become an authority on making work much more productive.
For Zions Bank, I’m Fred Ball. I’m speaking on business.
