We all love to win, and this is no different in sport than in business. Studies have shown that companies that have a sports like culture, as in wanting to be the best in their field, invariably become that or close to.

Given that this is the month of Grand Finals in Australia, what better time to inspect the successful actions of the top teams and see how these can be applied in businesses to create a winning culture.

First, a game needs to be present and communicated to all in your team. In football it is winning the grand final. In business it may be being the top company in your specialist field. Healthy people love an inspiring game; those that don’t are usually those that have low self-esteem. A game may be as simplae as create the best product or more of them in a shorter time than before.

Recently I analyzed the winning teams AFL teams from the previous years. All hand the following attributes:

• Recruiting a team that has the right attitude
• A continual fast weeding out of those that would not make it
• Recruited for the future (next year) as well as for the short-term
• Recruited more staff than was needed at the time.
• Has a clear vision and dream that was reinforced continually
• Weaknesses in team addressed by hiring key players
  Coaches continually watching their team when on the field and making changes when crisis arose.
• Team leaders/captains assigned to manage no more than teams of 6
• “projects” to focus team attention
• Regular Staff bonding in times of disarray
• Turning a loss into ammunition to do better next week
• Continual Sense of urgency
• Always respecting the competition and not being complacent
• Team members not standing for lack of discipline in others
• Team members continually positively reinforcing wins
• Weekly training sessions for all
• Discipline to a game plan
• Visible recognition of exemplary plays
• Looking at what makes competitors work and replicating
• The competitor is always external to the team
• Loyal fan base
• Spotting gaps in the market/defense of competitors and drawing the play to these weaknesses

Interestingly, all of these attributes can be applied to business with some imagination on the business owner. Flight Centre was and still is a master at doing this. They do not pay their staff as well as many other industries, but their consultants staff talk about how much they enjoyed working there and how they loved making sales and winning – what made it so was the culture of games.

As a manager of staff, you are the coach, umpire and creator of the game. As long as it is always aligned to the business goals you will find creating games cultures one of the cheapest most efficient ways to raise productivity.