Capitolo 1
When Play Becomes the Ultimate Work Strategy
The paradox of human behavior has never been more apparent than in the workplace. We'll pay for the privilege of waking up at 4 AM to trudge through freezing blizzards on hunting trips, yet drag ourselves lethargically through our paid workday. What if we could harness the same enthusiasm we bring to recreation and channel it into our professional lives? This revolutionary concept forms the backbone of Charles Coonradt's "The Game of Work," which has transformed organizations from Coca-Cola to Boeing since its publication in 1984. Endorsed by business leaders worldwide and consistently ranked among the most influential business books, Coonradt's approach doesn't just improve productivity-it fundamentally changes how people experience their work. By applying the principles that make sports and games inherently engaging, companies have reported not only dramatic performance improvements but also increased employee satisfaction and retention. In a world where 70% of workers report being disengaged, Coonradt's timeless principles offer a refreshing alternative to conventional management techniques.
Capitolo 2
The Recreation-Work Motivation Gap
People will pay for the privilege of working harder than they will work when they are paid. This fundamental observation reveals a profound truth about human motivation. Consider the deer hunter who drags himself lethargically through his workday, yet becomes energized beyond recognition for hunting trips. He'll stay up all night preparing equipment, drive hours on rough roads in terrible weather, wake at 4 a.m. to cook elaborate breakfasts, and trudge through freezing blizzards-all while paying for the privilege.
Why does this motivation gap exist? The answer lies in five key principles that differentiate recreation from work. First, in recreation, goals are clearly defined-you know exactly what success looks like. Second, scorekeeping is better-objective, self-administered, and allowing comparison with past personal performance. Third, feedback is more frequent-you know the score as the game progresses, not just at quarterly reviews. Fourth, participants feel a higher degree of personal choice about how to achieve their objectives. Fifth, the rules remain consistent throughout the game.
Professional athletes demonstrate this principle perfectly. They're paid to play, but their enthusiasm comes from the elements of the game itself, not just the paycheck. When Tiger Woods steps onto the golf course or Serena Williams onto the tennis court, they're not merely fulfilling contractual obligations-they're engaging in activities structured to maximize motivation and performance.
The tragedy of modern work is that we've stripped away these motivational elements, creating environments where people feel micromanaged rather than empowered. We've replaced clear goals with vague expectations, immediate feedback with annual reviews, and personal choice with rigid procedures. The result? Disengagement, underperformance, and unfulfilled potential.
By applying these five principles of recreational motivation to the workplace, organizations can transform their culture and performance. When employees know exactly what "winning" looks like, can track their progress in real-time, receive immediate feedback, exercise meaningful choice in how they achieve objectives, and operate within consistent rules-the motivation gap begins to close. Work becomes less like drudgery and more like play, unleashing levels of energy, creativity, and commitment that conventional management approaches simply cannot achieve.
Capitolo 3
Setting Goals That Transform Performance
In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become enslaved by activity rather than focused on results. This fundamental principle explains why recreational activities generate such intense motivation-they provide crystal-clear objectives. When you walk onto a tennis court or football field, you know exactly what constitutes winning. This clarity of purpose must be replicated in the workplace if we hope to generate similar levels of engagement.
Effective goal-setting follows specific criteria that transform vague aspirations into powerful motivators. First, goals must be written. Unwritten goals are merely wishes, easily forgotten or modified when challenges arise. The simple act of writing creates commitment and permanence. Mike Holmgren's Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XXXI because they prepared for every game with well-organized, specific written goals-not vague intentions to "play better."
Goals must also be personally owned. While team objectives matter, individual commitment drives performance. Chris Klug's Olympic bronze medal in snowboarding came after a liver transplant left him bedridden with just eighteen months before the games. Despite this adversity and a boot buckle breaking just before his final race (repaired with duct tape), he became the first transplant recipient to win an Olympic medal. His personal commitment to excellence transcended team obligations.
The framing of goals profoundly impacts their effectiveness. Goals must be positive rather than negative. Baseball tracks hits and home runs, not strikeouts. A smoker must aim to become a nonsmoker rather than to "quit smoking"-focusing on the positive state to be achieved rather than what's being abandoned. Similarly, weight management goals should focus on achieving optimal weight rather than "losing" pounds.
Specificity and measurability are non-negotiable attributes of effective goals. In sports, we measure performance to hundredths of a stroke in golf or thousandths of a second in swimming. Business goals must answer: how much, how many, and by when? Even intangible objectives like "becoming more patient" need concrete metrics-perhaps tracking how often you raise your voice.
Goals are best stated in inflation-proof terms-units that don't change like minutes, hours, pounds, or units produced. A Northwestern paper company entering the fine-paper business chose to measure production in pounds rather than dollars. During a worldwide paper shortage when prices increased dramatically, competitors measured success by dollar sales (showing modest increases despite price inflation), while this company focused on beating pound quotas and captured significant market share.
Every goal requires a deadline to create urgency and commitment. The most exciting moments in sports occur in those final seconds before time expires. Without deadlines, goals remain philosophical statements rather than catalysts for action. A Boise State football team facing elimination with seconds remaining executed three perfectly timed trick plays to achieve an improbable victory-demonstrating how deadlines transform performance.
Achieving meaningful goals often requires personal transformation. Derek Parra's journey from inline skating champion to Olympic gold medalist in speedskating illustrates this principle. He went from being world #1 to a back-of-the-pack competitor but persisted through personal change until winning gold in 2002. As Paul J. Meyer observed, "You must first set goals to become before you attempt to set goals to have."
Finally, every goal needs an interrelated statement of benefits-the "what's in it for me" factor. Olympic athletes may be motivated by honor and achievement, but the gold also translates to financial rewards through endorsements. Creating tangible rewards for reaching goals transforms them from obligations into aspirations-from "have to" into "want to" experiences.
When these principles guide goal-setting in the workplace, they generate the same motivation that drives exceptional performance in recreational pursuits. Employees no longer merely complete tasks-they pursue meaningful objectives with clarity, commitment, and passion.
Capitolo 4
The Power of Keeping Score
The fundamental difference between figure-skating and ice-hockey crowds reveals the importance of scorekeeping. Figure-skating audiences offer polite applause because they don't know the score until judges reveal it after the performance. Hockey fans are passionate because everyone knows the score at all times, allowing appropriate reactions from players and spectators alike.
Scorekeeping is the heart of athletics and must become the heart of successful business. Sports reports always lead with the score before adding commentary, while business often reverses this priority. Professional sports continuously add measurements to increase interest-baseball's slugging percentage, golf's putting statistics, basketball's points per possession. These metrics don't just track performance; they drive engagement and improvement.
Three approaches exist for managing organizations: by observation, by judgment, or by measurement. Observation management occurs when decisions are based solely on what managers personally witness, often missing the full context. For example, a sales manager might see representatives laughing in the salesroom, not realizing they've just secured appointments with long-pursued clients. This approach is almost always inaccurate, irrelevant to actual performance, and tends to focus on problems rather than successes.
Management by judgment compounds these flaws by making sweeping conclusions based on limited observations-like assuming "kids today don't work as hard" after seeing a brief interaction. This approach leads to harmful generalizations and creates "barnacles" where past mistakes follow employees forever. Judgment leads to prejudgment, which leads to prejudice and ultimately blindness to actual performance.
Management by measurement is the only approach that truly works. Unlike the other methods, measurement is relevant to the process being evaluated, exact in its assessment, and makes work enjoyable because participants have a way to win. There are three kinds of workers: those who know they're winning, those who know they're losing, and those who don't know the score. Winners keep track of results; losers keep track of reasons.
Effective scorekeeping follows fundamental principles. First, it must be simple and objective-like a football score that doesn't explain how points were scored, just the final result. Second, scorekeeping must be self-administered, with players tracking their own progress rather than waiting for managers or computers to do it days later. This self-tracking approach builds self-concept and allows for immediate corrections.
Third, scorekeeping must offer comparison between current performance, past performance, and accepted standards-like how golf allows an 18-handicapper to compare against their own past rounds while still acknowledging professional standards. Fourth, scorekeeping should be dynamic, providing real-time feedback during the game rather than waiting until month's end when it's too late to adjust.
Implementing measurement principles requires careful introduction as resistance to change is common. Too many managers focus on problems rather than celebrating successes, creating a culture where shortcomings receive more attention than accomplishments. Effective scorekeeping allows workers to establish their own self-worth based on accurate performance records. As IBM has demonstrated, scorekeeping exists primarily to know when to celebrate achievement.
Capitolo 5
Feedback: The Accelerator of Performance
Feedback accelerates performance improvement. Just as a football coach would never hand a quarterback a predetermined list of plays without allowing for adjustments based on game conditions, businesses shouldn't expect employees to perform without ongoing feedback. Yet many companies do exactly that, providing job descriptions without the continuous information needed to improve performance.
Two critical principles expand on Thomas Monson's observation that "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates." First, increasing feedback frequency improves both quality and quantity of performance-measuring monthly is good, weekly is better, daily is excellent, and hourly may be best of all. Second, when feedback is illustrated on charts and graphs, the impact is even greater. Data becomes useful management knowledge when visually displayed.
The timing of feedback profoundly impacts its effectiveness. Tennis fans can't tolerate a 90-second delay for shot-tracking technology, yet employees are expected to wait weeks or months for performance feedback. This delay disconnects actions from outcomes, undermining the learning process. Immediate feedback creates a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement, allowing for real-time adjustments and preventing the entrenchment of ineffective behaviors.
Feedback must also be specific and actionable. General comments like "good job" or "needs improvement" provide little guidance for development. Effective feedback identifies precisely what worked well or needs adjustment, creating a clear path forward. This specificity transforms feedback from judgment into valuable information that empowers rather than diminishes.
The medium of feedback matters as well. Visual representations-charts, graphs, dashboards-amplify impact by making performance patterns immediately apparent. These visual tools transform abstract numbers into meaningful narratives that drive engagement and improvement. They also democratize information, allowing everyone to see and understand performance trends rather than restricting access to management.
Perhaps most importantly, feedback should emphasize progress rather than perfection. By highlighting improvement over time rather than focusing exclusively on gaps between current performance and ultimate standards, feedback becomes motivational rather than demoralizing. This approach recognizes that sustainable development occurs incrementally, building confidence and commitment through acknowledged progress.
When organizations implement these feedback principles, they create environments where continuous improvement becomes the norm rather than the exception. Employees no longer work in information vacuums, guessing at their effectiveness. Instead, they operate with the same real-time awareness that characterizes peak performance in sports and other recreational pursuits.
Capitolo 6
The Freedom of Choice
Choice drives America-from car models to ski brands to our constitutional rights. Yet two-thirds of American workers are unhappy with their jobs because their choices are severely limited. They're told exactly what to do and how to do it, robbing them of enjoyment and optimal performance. People become committed to what they freely choose, and need to own their jobs through having choices about goals and methods.
Decision-makers are highly valued in business, but companies often fail to develop this skill by restricting choices for new employees. Even small choices about workspace and methods give workers ownership without compromising company success. By encouraging innovation and clarifying which aspects of work allow flexibility, managers build tomorrow's decision-makers rather than perpetuating dependency.
Our choices constitute our behavior, and we cannot change results without changing behavior. The uncomfortable truth is that desired outcomes require corresponding actions-weight loss demands dietary changes, financial independence requires spending discipline. Team and business success depends on player behavior, not external factors or circumstances beyond our control.
Thoughts determine actions-it's impossible to behave consistently contrary to fundamental attitudes. Coaches struggle with shaping attitudes to produce desired behaviors. Two forces form attitudes: significant emotional events (difficult to control) and conditioning (more manageable through consistent messaging and experiences).
Childhood conditioning profoundly shapes adult behavior. Parental warnings like "never talk to strangers" or "never go where you're not wanted" create sales-call reluctance in professional settings. The power of conditioning comes through repetition-we internalize messages heard consistently throughout childhood, which then unconsciously guide our management and investment decisions decades later.
Success follows a clear chain: results come from behavior, which stems from attitudes, formed by conditioning through repetition. When workers at a modular housing company were given choice about when to finish their work week (rather than being told they had to work until Friday), they completed the same workload by Wednesday afternoon through unprecedented cooperation. The vice president had suggested they could leave at noon Friday if they completed 44,000 square feet of work, but when given true choice, workers finished by Wednesday at 2:00 pm. Plumbers, electricians, and roofers all helped each other to achieve this remarkable efficiency.
This example illustrates a profound truth: when workers have freedom to choose how to succeed rather than being obligated to follow prescribed methods, they'll perform beyond expectations. Choice creates ownership, ownership creates commitment, and commitment creates exceptional performance. The most effective leaders don't micromanage methods but clearly define desired outcomes while giving teams latitude to determine how best to achieve them.
Capitolo 7
Defining the Field of Play
Great managers constantly seek to minimize uncertainty. Just as sports require clearly defined boundaries and rules before play begins, businesses need well-defined fields of play. When employees don't understand their boundaries, they become confused and ineffective. Freedom is greatest when boundaries are clearly defined-just as driving on an icy road is safer with clear visibility than in fog. Without clear boundaries, people restrict their performance to avoid unknown risks.
In business, unclear boundaries create confusion. When managers contradict themselves about policies (like customer returns), employees lose confidence. Some workers have clearly defined roles (like assembly line workers) with high certainty but perhaps less challenge. The ideal field of play resembles a square with one side open for growth-providing both clear boundaries and opportunity.
Effective fields of play include clearly marked "terminal out-of-bounds" (firing offenses), "operational out-of-bounds" (correctable violations), and "performance out-of-bounds" (below standard performance). Above the performance standard are the "HOW" area (where coaching helps) and "WOW" area (where exceptional performance earns freedom). Managers should define these boundaries with each employee to eliminate unnecessary fear and uncertainty.
The Game of Work establishes clear boundaries through an "Out-of-Bounds Statement" that explicitly defines firing offenses, eliminating employee fear by providing clarity. This document forms part of a comprehensive "Field of Play Agreement" that includes development agendas and coaching meeting structures. The agreement details terminal out-of-bounds (immediate firing offenses like theft, copyright violations, or unethical behavior) and operational out-of-bounds (lesser violations).
The development process unfolds through structured meetings where coach and player establish scorecards, expectations, and performance standards. Monthly one-on-one coaching sessions (representing less than 1% of work time) follow a specific agenda covering business processes, goals, projects, and player development. This systematic approach provides certainty and consistency, allowing realistic goal-setting within established boundaries-just as in sports, where boundaries precede goals.
Feedback must be honest, positive, and scheduled so players know when their hour arrives. Without a clearly defined field of play, uncertainty thrives and performance suffers. With clear boundaries, players know exactly where they can win and can focus their energy on performance rather than politics or self-protection.
This approach transforms the traditional employment relationship from one based on compliance to one based on commitment. When employees understand exactly what constitutes acceptable performance and what lies beyond the boundaries, they can operate with confidence rather than fear. The resulting clarity eliminates the energy-draining uncertainty that plagues many workplaces and redirects that energy toward productive achievement.
Capitolo 8
The Psychology of Winning
Only winners are remembered. Whether it's Super Bowl champions, Tour de France victors, or Masters winners-people care about who won, not who came in second. Companies choose Olympic gold medalists for endorsements because everyone wants to do business with winners. Even when selecting attorneys, we instinctively choose proven winners over untested novices.
Winners share distinctive characteristics that separate them from the crowd. First, winners come prepared. George Allen, Washington Redskins coach, once paid someone to sit in the Los Angeles Coliseum for a week just to track the sun's angle during Super Bowl VII. While NFL games last only 60 minutes, they require thousands of hours of preparation. In business, we must resist constant activity to allow proper preparation-defining results-to-resources ratios, constructing game plans, scouting competition, and building strategies before sending people out to perform.
Second, winners expect to win. Tiger Woods' opponents knew they weren't safe even with substantial leads because his self-assurance wasn't unfounded cockiness but proven performance. Similarly, Joe Namath's prediction that his underdog Jets would win Super Bowl III wasn't just talk-he delivered because he expected victory. This expectation isn't delusional optimism but a confidence grounded in preparation and past achievement.
Third, winners maintain specific positivity. Negativism is the antithesis of winning-a cancer of the mind. Losers make negative generalizations from isolated incidents, like the salesman who claimed secretaries wouldn't let him see their bosses when actually only one of twenty calls went poorly. Winners see glasses as half-full, focusing on opportunities rather than problems. When describing negative situations, winners remain ultra-specific to maintain their positive mental attitude.
Fourth, winners accept personal responsibility for their actions. They use "I," "me," and "our" language, while losers say "they," "them," and "management." This "loser's elbow" syndrome appears when people point blame elsewhere-at management, employees, the economy, inflation, computers, or distant offices. Winners take ownership of both successes and failures, recognizing that responsibility is the foundation of improvement.
Fifth, winners don't seek to change the rules-they understand them well enough to win within them. At the 1996 Olympics, when gymnast Kerri Strug severely sprained her ankle before her final vault, her coach Bela Karolyi didn't ask to change the rules. Instead, he encouraged her: "Come on, Kerri, you can do it. This is what you've trained for." Despite her injury, she completed her vault perfectly, securing America's first women's team gymnastics gold medal.
Sixth, winners pay the price willingly, not grudgingly. Eric Heiden, who won five gold medals in speed skating at the 1980 Winter Olympics, trained relentlessly-running 289 steps up ski-jump hills, skating in subzero temperatures, and exercising four hours at a time. Yet when cameras showed him training, he wasn't grimacing in pain-he was smiling, focused on the gold medals he would win. Winners see the price as a bargain because they're focused on the end result.
Finally, winners set goals. Goal setting is the strongest force for human motivation, and winning and goal setting are synonymous. Ted Ligety, who became the youngest American alpine skier to win Olympic gold at 21, had been working toward that goal since grade school. The top 3% of financially independent Americans distinguish themselves not by demographics but by having written goals with specific plans. Written goals transform dreams into reality, making us architects of our own lives.
Capitolo 9
Measuring What Matters: The Results-to-Resources Ratio
If winning isn't important, why do we spend all that money on scoreboards? In business, we must effectively measure our Results-to-Resources Ratio (RRR)-the relationship between what we achieve and what we invest to achieve it. When implementing RRR, identify your most expensive resource (typically people) and most valuable result (often profit), then create ratios like "net profit dollars per total department hours."
Historical tracking provides essential context-one client discovered declining productivity when comparing profit increases (31% down to 5%) against wage increases (9% up to 18%) over five years. When introducing measurement, reduce uncertainty by showing historical data first. Have employees generate their own calculations and graphs for maximum buy-in. Remember that measurement isn't punitive-it's informative.
Winners understand probabilities and follow the Pareto Principle-that 20% of efforts produce 80% of results. Like bank robber Willie Sutton who said he robbed banks "because that's where the money is," winners go where the opportunity is greatest. They focus their energy on high-yield activities rather than spreading themselves thin across all possibilities.
This was proven when a skeptical salesman discovered his top 19 accounts (out of 104) produced 83% of his business, and just 25 accounts generated 96% of his volume. By redistributing his lowest-producing accounts and focusing on his major clients, he achieved a 55% sales increase within a year. Similarly, a paint distributor dramatically improved inventory management by categorizing products into three groups based on sales volume, reducing inventory from $290,000 to $165,000 while maintaining 93% customer satisfaction.
The difference between good and great is minimal-PGA golfer Ernie Els earned $4.4 million more than Tom Lehman despite averaging just 0.28 strokes better per round. NASCAR winners are determined by 1/2000th performance differences, and Olympic champions like Bonnie Blair won three consecutive gold medals by a combined margin of just 0.56 seconds. These tiny performance differences produce dramatically different outcomes.
Every professional has "pers" (measurements per unit) that reveal true performance. Lead by example, developing your own RRRs before asking others to do the same. Your first attempt may not be perfect, but courage to begin will improve your ability to produce results in others. The key is identifying measurements that truly drive behavior change and performance improvement rather than merely tracking activity.
Capitolo 10
Real-World Success Stories
The principles of The Game of Work have transformed organizations across industries. These case studies demonstrate how applying recreational motivation to business settings produces remarkable results.
A retail lumber company with three locations was planning to sell their best property to improve cash flow. After investigation, I discovered their problem wasn't cash flow but slackening credit control and loosening purchasing controls. Historical review showed receivables had grown from 43 to 67 days outstanding, tying up nearly $250,000 in capital. Meanwhile, inventory had ballooned from 8.3 to 16.7 weeks on hand, tying up another $200,000. By implementing proper scorekeeping, within 13 weeks receivables were reduced to 53 days (releasing $150,000), and within 18 weeks inventory was down to 12 weeks (releasing $100,000). The property sale became unnecessary.
A public communications company had been stuck between $1.4-1.9 million in annual profits for years. After establishing a $2.25 million target (their historical best) and allocating it proportionally across divisions, the CEO gave each division head their profit expectations in an envelope. Despite initial resistance, managers quickly developed operating plans and finished by Thanksgiving instead of late January. The result? They achieved $3.4 million in profit-far exceeding the goal-because of early implementation and creative customer incentive programs.
When called to help a $10 million trucking company with maintenance problems, standard measurements weren't revealing useful patterns despite costs running nearly twice the national average. We implemented a non-standard measurement: average miles between breakdowns. Mechanics tracked odometer readings at each breakdown, creating a simple scorecard for each vehicle. This system immediately identified a service terminal where trucks averaged only 750 miles between breakdowns and allowed comparison between repair facilities. The new measurement led to increased vehicle rotation frequency and reduced repair costs by 1.2% of sales, saving $125,000 annually.
A custom overhead crane company discovered their receivables problem through tracking "days of business outstanding," which approached ninety days. When someone mentioned invoices might be going out too slowly, we created a scorecard to track days from job completion to invoice mailing. The first batch averaged thirteen working days-causing a full month's delay in customer payment opportunity. By identifying bottlenecks in the invoicing process, the controller reduced processing time from thirteen days to just three within six weeks, eliminating almost two weeks from the collection cycle.
A small bottling company that traditionally suffered 30-90 day losses after the holiday season needed help controlling seasonal unprofitability. We identified two metrics unaffected by inflation: cases delivered per gallon of fuel consumed and cases per mile. By tracking these results-to-resources ratios and adjusting for vehicle types, the company operated in the black during January and February for the first time in its history.
For struggling new salespeople, I developed the Mean Days Between Sales (MDBS) system with simple progressive goals: get your first sale as quickly as possible, make your second sale faster than your first, make your third sale faster than your average of the first two, and continue beating your average. This approach worked brilliantly-one salesperson went from nearly resigning after 90 days to becoming national rookie of the year.
These principles work in virtually every business and organization, just as effectively as they do in athletics. The key is getting people sold on scorekeeping, aligning personal goals with company objectives, clearly defining rules, establishing results-to-resources ratios, and providing daily feedback on winning or losing. When players help develop their own scorekeeping system, they take ownership of it. Applied properly, these principles make work as enjoyable as recreation, with workers bringing the same enthusiasm and energy to their jobs as they do to play.
