Welcome to Game of Work

Chuck Coonradt

In 1973, Chuck Coonradt founded The Game of Work to answer the charge that U.S. productivity was not world class. Coonradt's methodology includes teaching the principles that unlock keys to employee involvement, engagement and energy, thereby affecting a company's bottom line. Prior to 1973 Coonradt had reflected, "Why would people pay for the privilege of working harder at their chosen sport or recreational pursuit than they would work at a job where they were being paid?" Chuck's answers to this reflection developed into five specific principles that answer why so many workers were more zealous about their leisure than their work.

Coonradt has developed a team of high-flying management consultants who teach management teams how to effectively integrate these five principles into their own enterprise, which include Fortune 500 companies all over the map. Corporate giants such as International Paper, Coca-Cola, and Ralston Purina have employed The Game of Work principles to improve their bottom line.

Chuck is a Michigan State University graduate. He is internationally recognized in the fields of goal setting and profit improvement, as an author, consultant, and speaker. His books, The Game of Work, Managing the Obvious, The Four Laws of Debt Free Prosperity, and Scorekeeping for Success have been labeled as management "must reads." He is a contributing author to the best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series, as well as a founding member and frequent lecturer at the School of Entrepreneurship, Brigham Young University, Marriott School of Management.

Over one million executives, managers, and supervisors on five continents have been exposed to Chuck's ideas on feedback, scorekeeping, goal setting, coaching, choice, and accountability. Other companies that have successfully utilized and implemented Chuck's unique concepts include The Chicago Tribune, Marker Bindings, Wendy's, Sherwin Williams, Boeing, Coors Brewing Company, Quaker Oats, Ralph's, and Sysco.
Chuck and his wife Carla and their family live in Park City, which played host to the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, where he is active in church and community organizations.

Dave Hill

Call him the "consummate professional trainer." Dave Hill has dedicated 34 years of his professional career to training people - employees, consultants and trainers. During his professional career, Dave has conducted training seminars and workshops for more than 2,500 various groups and has instructed impressive corporate giants like IBM, Merrill Lynch, Coca Cola and BMW.

He graduated from the University of Utah and continued his education as a member of the Franklin Covey Certification Team and Speakers Bureau where he served on an elite training team. But much of his practical experience began hard and fast at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a personnel administrator for 10,000 employees. At that time, he designed and wrote a personnel training program and managed all employee policies and procedures.

As director of human resource and training at IML Freight, Inc., Dave managed all personnel issues for 2,700 employees. In this capacity, he interfaced with front line supervisors, middle management and senior executives and produced multi-media presentations.

His early experience with training personnel made it was easy for Dave to make the leap to instructing trainers. In this capacity, Dave coached new consultants and trainers as he climbed the corporate ladder at The Charles R. Hobb Corp. in Utah, Day-Timers, Inc. in Pennsylvania, The Barham Seminar Bureau in Utah and Syringa Inc. in Idaho.

Dave and his wife, Berdene, have four children and nine grandchildren and enjoy family camping trips. In his spare time, he loves to golf and fly-fish, and trains regularly as a marathon runner.

Musical theater, however, is Dave's real passion. He has performed in more than 70 productions in Utah and for the past four years has played "Scrooge" in A Christmas Carol.

The Game of Work welcomes Hill's diversified background, zest for life and passion for teaching. "I have always taught with the philosophy: If the learner hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught."

Dick Friedman

There is no substitute for experience. When Dick Friedman shares his passion for creating personal and organizational effectiveness, he draws on his 18-year career with a leading global telecommunications company and brings a rich tapestry of leadership experience. He is one of many leaders who have shown how a company, through the principles of The Game of Work, can weave improvements into the fabric of the organization that are practical, measurable, and lasting.

As a senior-level executive responsible for over $300,000,000 in annual revenues, his teams were able to achieve stunning successes in building a sales culture, increasing productivity, and managing change. They sustained national sales records for new product launches, improving sell-in by as much as 250 percent. While general manager, his team was selected as TCI West's "System of the Year," based on a comprehensive ranking of all performance metrics.

"I joined The Game of Work team because it captured the essence of what I had learned in my 20 years of leadership in the workplace. Second only to my family, my greatest joy is continuous learning and sharing my experiences with The Game of Work clients."

As a client, Dick introduced over 100 members of his management team to the principles of The Game of Work and received The Game of Work "Super Coach" award - one of twelve in the 28-year history of the company. Steven King, President of King Communications, LLC, remarked appreciatively, "Dick's dedication and enthusiasm are contagious. Through his intuitive insight, we were able to set a clear course. He had a very positive impact on the skills and habits of many members of our management team."

Dick graduated Cum Laude from the University of Maine in 1972. He was a member of the Utah Information Technologies Association CEO Taskforce in 1996, and he served as vice chairman and on the Board of Directors for the Utah Cable Telecommunications Association from 1989-1994.
Dick is also a professional soccer referee and an active member of the United States Soccer Federation, National Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Association, Utah High School Activities Association, and a trustee on the Board of the Utah Soccer Referee Association.
Dick loves to ski with his wife Linda and their two boys in the beautiful mountains surrounding his home in the Salt Lake Valley.

Richard Williams, PhD

Dr. Richard L. Williams is former director of executive development for the nation's largest supermarket chain. However, he is best known as a professional educator and lecturer with a unique talent for improving the effectiveness of leaders and organizations; for over 30 years he has lectured and written on communications and total quality management - conducting over 3,500 workshops and seminars to more than 100,000 managers and executives.

Those attending Dr. Williams' sessions characterize him as a "powerful and effective motivator who changes and improves the performance of others." His style and presentation methods reflect a positive "can-do" attitude, but more importantly, he teaches practical skills to build and sustain long-term success. As an associate of The Game of Work, Dr. Williams specializes in performance management, leadership development, and organizational development/ diagnostics.

Dr. Williams has published over 80 articles dealing with training methods, techniques and research. He has authored seven books, including four college textbooks on communications; with Chuck Coonradt, he co-authored Managing the Obvious, and he was selected by the American Management Association to write its standard book on Total Quality Management titled Essentials of Total Quality Management. His most recent book is titled Coaching Strategies to Improve Performance.

Dr. Williams received a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Utah. He holds a master's degree in communications and a doctorate in organizational psychology from Oxford International University (where he was honored with knighthood, due to outstanding scholarship). He has been a visiting instructor for the University of Wisconsin, University of Alaska, and Brigham Young University.

Rick and his wife Rhonda have six children, and one granddaughter. He loves to ride his mountain bike, and in his spare time, he referees college soccer matches.

Carla Coonradt

Carla Coonradt is Partner and Vice President of The Game of Work, and has been with the company since its inception. Throughout her twenty-eight years with the consulting firm, Carla has created marketing strategies for the firm’s professional leadership training, and, as a result, The Game of Work has received national media attention and has consistently booked over 100 days of professional speaking engagements annually. Today, as Marketing Director, Carla handles marketing and public relations for the company. Carla is also Creative Director for special press projects and media campaigns.

Carla’s nearly three decades of experience are backed with college education from the University of Utah School of Business. Carla also received certification through a series of professional management courses and brushes up her skills with periodic refresher training in accounting, marketing and business management.

In the early years of The Game of Work, Carla helped create the largest U.S. distributorship of outsourced business coaching tools. The Game of Work soon grew to market its own business management methods and books. Carla headed up the publishing division, which to-date has released five titles with over 200,000 copies sold. On a related note she oversees all contract work including copyrights and trademarks. Additionally, Carla supervises the continuing development of the website and has managed the creation of the firm’s Card Rom, an electronic business card outlining The Game of Work’s unique concept of applying the five principals of applying the motivation of recreation to the workplace.

Carla exemplifies "the game" through her many extracurricular activities. Over the years she has served on various corporate boards and chaired several charitable committees, improving business, education and non-profit climates. She is a fun-loving wife to Chuck and active mother of five. She frequents the slopes at Deer Valley and, for years, has been identified by her customized plates that read, "SKI MOM".

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