Historically, businesses using traditional management styles have been reluctant to give all of their employees the knowledge they need in order to make good business decisions day in and day out as they do their jobs. Open-book management takes a much different approach. It’s all about capturing and sharing both financial and organizational knowledge with every employee and empowering them to use that knowledge to contribute to the long-term success of the organization, as well as their own personal success. The benefits of knowledge sharing are numerous:
- Knowledge overcomes fear – No fear is worse than the fear of the unknown and reality is rarely as bad as the “water-cooler” talk.
- Knowledge breaks down barriers & facilitates communication – Knowledge promotes communication between management and employees and between departments. Seeing the “Big Picture” reinforces that we’re all in this together.
- Knowledge reveals the reasons behind the actions – Understanding why ownership/management makes the decisions they make fosters cooperation.
- Knowledge leads to intelligent decisions – Understanding how our job affects our workgroup, department and the company impacts the decisions we make on a daily basis.
- Knowledge is motivating and empowering – Knowing what’s going on and understanding that we can make a difference is motivating and empowering!
- Knowledge encourages involvement & breeds a feeling of ownership – We tend to support what we help to create. We get on the bandwagon faster if we help build the wagon.
- Knowledge creates opportunities – No matter what else we do, part of our job is to create opportunities for success—for ourselves and for our company. Business author Roger Von Oech said, “Things are changing quickly. What worked last week may not be the best way to solve today’s problems or the best way to take advantage of next week’s opportunities.” The more we know, the more opportunities we can create.
In today’s competitive marketplace, more than ever, we’ve had to raise the level of knowledge in our organizations. In the Great Game of Business, “opening the books” is just the beginning. The Game is a total management system with proven processes for educating, empowering and engaging employees at all levels of the company to create a thriving business.
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