Today we’re going to talk about how to make winning fun for the company, for the team. When your company is growing rapidly, it puts a lot of pressure on people to get things done. There’s a lot more stress involved even when you’re doing well. So one way to make winning fun is to create quarterly/semi-annual themes and tie them into your goals.
What does it look like to create, say, a quarterly theme that’s tied to a goal? And how does that make life fun? Well, let me give you an example. Again, I know some people aren’t into sports. I’m just using this one example since I’m in Texas and football is really big here. But there’s a variety of things you can do.
If your quarter is during the football season, you could use football as your theme. Maybe for the fourth quarter, the goal can be to get 100 new clients for the company. Now, there are 100 yards on the football field, and getting the 100 clients in essence represents scoring a touchdown, thus tying your goal to the football theme. Throughout the quarter, what you can do is put up a visual either in the office or online (if some of your employees work remotely). As you progress toward the goal, you’ll make notes. For example, if your group has gotten 10 new clients, then you’re on the 10-yard line. 20 new clients means you’re on the 20-yard line, and so on. You keep getting better as a team, and everyone can see this visual as you get closer and closer to your goal.
At the end of the quarter, if you get the touchdown, you win the big goal or big accomplishment for the theme. If you’ve done well but didn’t quite reach the final goal, there’s still other prizes along the way. For example, say you get 100 new clients. That was your big stretch goal. You’re in the end zone, got a touchdown. Then you take the company out to a football game like the Texans here in Houston. You might get a suite for the game as long as the numbers make sense for you. That’s a huge reward for your team based on the theme.
If your team makes it to the 85 or 90-yard line, that’s still great for your company. But you didn’t hit your major goal, so as opposed to getting a suite, the theme accomplishment may be that your team all get tickets to the game. Everyone will still have fun at the game; they just won’t get the best seats.
Say you get to the 60-yard line, which is still moderately good. Better than average. Then what you can do is maybe take the team out to a restaurant to watch the game on TV.
The final scenario is if you completely miss your goal. Even so, it’s good to get the team together. But you want to do this in a very simple way, such as having a small hotdog party in your office breakroom while you watch the game. Basic and nothing fancy. This way you can all get together and have acknowledgement of the theme. Kind of like a consolation prize.
To recap, you want to have a goal tied to a theme that everyone can visually see. You as a team will then work towards it throughout the quarter, and at the end you want to have different levels of rewards set up based on what you accomplish. This can do tremendous things for companies. It makes winning fun! It pulls the team toward the same direction and keeps the goal at the forefront of everyone’s minds. I really encourage you to try this out. Even if you have a small company with only a few employees, or if you’re a solopreneur, this can be a fun and motivating experience.
