The Paul attended a webinar hosted by Leah Thayer Senior Editor at Hanley Wood and her guest speaker Greg Antonolli, owner of Out of the Woods Construction.

The Topic: Open Book Management.

Open Book or Not?

Greg and Leah did a good job opening the webinar. Greg answered questions from the attendees and concluded well. Greg has an easy conversational way of covering the subject of using Open Book Management, something his company has practiced since 2004.

This method of running a company calls for accountability from all participants, I mean from the demo guys to the business owner himself, and as practiced by Out of the Woods its an all or nothing process.

Greg opens his books completely during his company meetings. I have to agree with this because if I worked there and Open Book Management meant only part of the book was open I would only be a part of the way employee.

What did I come away with?

Open Book Management works on trust, it helps to be confident that the benefits will make it all worth while, and it isn’t some radical new think of an unproven system, its actually a common sense approach to help everyone understand that their role is an important part in the companies operation.

Some of the Highlights are:

How you can start.

What can happen.

How well it works for Out of the Woods.

Some key points:

Basic rules for open-book management are:

• Know and teach the rules: every employee should be given the measures of business success and taught to understand them
• Follow the Action & Keep Score: Every employee should be expected and enabled to use their knowledge to improve performance
• Provide a Stake in the Outcome: Every employee should have a direct stake in the company’s success-and in the risk of failure
• The company should share finances as well as critical data with all employees
• Employers are challenged to move the numbers in a direction that improves the company
• Employees share in company prosperity

This Open Book Management webinar is well worth the time for Remodel Crazy to encourage its members to visit Hanley Wood’s Remodeling Magazine and listen in on Greg and Leah. You don’t have to agree with my assessment but you may find yourself questioning your management style and come to find that great businesses aren’t built on good processes, they are built from great ones.

Visit and learn with Greg and Leah here, Open Book Management Webinar