October 18, 2018
ISSN# 1545-2646
The Card Game of Business
All of us at some point in time learned a new card game. Maybe it was “Go Fish” or “Crazy 8’s” or even “Poker.” As we were taught, one of the techniques was to play a dummy hand of the game. If you are unfamiliar with this term or approach, basically the cards are dealt to the players and all the cards are left face up on the table in front of each participant. Instructions are provided by the teacher and then play commences by showing how each person may play the cards they were dealt. This process continues until the round is completed. Additional instructions are provided so that the next round the participants hold their cards in their hand. Others are unable to see what they have or how they may play the cards.
During the first few rounds of the game, you most likely were remembering rules and how those rules would affect the playing of the cards dealt to you. Your ability to keep not only the rules in mind but how to leverage those rules to achieve the best outcome was occupying lots of brain cells. The more you played the game the more those rules and decisions on which card to play on any given situations improved.
Business has a lot of the same characteristics as learning and playing games. The problem is that we get so caught up in it being “Business” that we take the fun out of the game. Think about playing a game as a child. You either liked the game or not. If you liked it you continued to play it. If you didn’t then you found something else to do with your time. As business leaders, there are some of you that have lost the enjoyment of running a business. The fun has been taken away. All the daily challenges mount up and distract you from being part of the fun of business.
That is not to say that business is always fun. Even playing cards can be frustrating when you are dealt lousy cards time and time again. That is part of the randomness of the game of cards and the game of business. Some days you get great cards and it all seems to fall into place and you win that hand of cards. The next hand or day the business is dealt nothing that matches up and you are playing from a defensive position to just not lose the hand.
This week, take a look at the cards you are currently working with – Your leadership team, your employees, your customers, your products/services etc. Maybe go back to the start of learning the game and get all the cards (challenges and benefits) all face up on the table. Look at what best suits your strategy for achieving the next best result for your business. Once you have your strategy and tactics then go out and play those cards with your team. The only difference is to make sure you share/communicate your strategies and tactics with your team so everyone is playing the same game.
Need some help to learn how to play the business game again? Call JKL Associates at (313) 527-7945 for an initial conversation. It won’t cost you anything but a little time to maybe learn a thing or two.