‘The Infinite Game’ tries to answer the question ‘How do we win a game that has no end?’ The author Simon Sinek describes 2 types of games. The finite game, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified. Infinite games, games with no finish line, like business or politics, or life itself, have players who come and go. The rules of an infinite games are changeable while infinite games have no definite endpoint. There are no winners or losers, only ahead and behind. 

The question is, how do we play to succeed in the game we are in? This book offers a framework for leading with an infinite mindset. On one hand, some of us can’t resist the fleeting thrills of a promotion earned or a tournament won. However, these rewards quickly fade. If we pursue a 'Just Cause', we will commit to a vision of a future world so appealing we will dedicate so much to building this future. Although, we don’t know the exact form this world will take, working toward it gives our work and our life meaning. Those leaders who embrace this infinite mindset build stronger, more innovative, more inspiring organisations. They are the ones that ultimately lead us into the future. Great leaders are the ones who think beyond short term and focus on the long term. They are the ones who know that it is not about the next quarter or the next election, it is about the next generation.

Simon Sinek is a British-born American motivational speaker and an author of 3 best-selling books. Sinek generally writes about business, leadership and personal development.

Summary & Key Learnings

Infinite & Finite Games

5 Key Points to Play Infinite Game:

1.     Advance a just cause

2.     Build trusting teams

3.     Study your worthy rival

4.     Prepare for existential flexibility

5.     Show the courage to lead

Infinite & Finite Games

Finite Game

The finite game, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified.

Infinite Game
Infinite games, games with no finish line, like business or politics, or life itself, have players who come and go. The rules of an infinite games are changeable while infinite games have no definite endpoint. There are no winners or losers, only ahead and behind.

Infinite games have infinite time horizons. There is no defined end point. And because there is no finish line, no practical end to the game, there is no such thing as winning an infinite game. In an infinite game, the primary objective is to keep playing, to perpetuate the game. 

The more you look at our world through this lens of finite and infinite games, the more you see infinite games all around us, games with no finish lines and no winners. There is no such thing as coming first in marriage or friendship, for example. 

Tip - When we lead with a finite mindset in an infinite game, it leads to all kinds of problems. The most common of which include the decline of trust, cooperation and innovation. Leading with an infinite mindset really does move us in a better direction.

Benefits of an infinite mindset

 In an infinite game, the true value cannot be measured by success of arbitrary metrics over arbitrary time frames. The true value of an organisation is measured by the desire others have to contribute to that organisation’s ability to keep succeeding, not just during the time they are there, but well beyond their own tenure.

In business, that means building an organisation that can survive its leaders. It is also for the business to play for the good of the game. In business, it means more than the bottom line. A company built for the infinite game doesn’t think of itself alone. It considers the impact of its decisions on its people, its community, the economy, the country and the world. It does these things for the good of the game.

The infinite minded player, expects surprises, even revels in them, and is prepared to be transformed by them. They embrace the freedom of play and are open to any possibility that keeps them in the game. Instead of looking for ways to react what has already happened, they look for ways to do something new. An infinite perspective frees us from fixating on what other companies are doing which allows us to focus on a larger vision.

Tip – A great leader considers the impact of its decisions on its people, its community, the economy, the country and the world.

5 Key Points to Play Infinite Game:

1.  Advance a just cause

 A Just Cause is a specific vision of a future state that does not yet exist. A future state so appealing that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help advance toward that vision. Though we may not like the sacrifices we make, it is because of the Just Cause that they feel worth it. It is the just cause that we are working to advance that gives our work and our lives meaning. 

Tip - A Just Cause inspires us to stay focused beyond the finite rewards and individual wins. 

Elements of a Just Cause is a specific vision that is:

•        For something
•        Inclusive
•        Service oriented
•        Resilient
•        Idealistic

For something | Inclusive | Service oriented

Must be optimistic and inclusive. It’s more inspiring to be building FOR something rather than fighting AGAINST something.

e.g.

Instead of trying to “reduce poverty” it’s better to be working FOR “growing the number of people who are able to provide for themselves and their families”. For example, the founding fathers weren’t AGAINST Great Britain, they were FOR freedom and independence: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”

Resilient

A Just Cause must be greater than the products we make and the services we offer. Our products and services are some of the things we use to advance our cause. They are themselves not the cause. If we articulate the cause in terms of products, then the organisation’s entire existence is based on those products.

e.g.

Had the music industry defined themselves sharers of music rather than sellers of records, tapes and CDs. They would have had an easier time in a world of digital streaming. By defining themselves by a greater cause than their products, they could have invented iTunes or Spotify. But they didn’t and are now paying the price for it.

Idealistic

When others can see a vision become something real, skeptics become believers and even more people feel inspired by the possibility and willingly commit their time and energy, ideas and talents to help advance the Cause further. 

Tip - No matter how much of the iceberg we can see, our leaders have the responsibility to remind us that the vast majority still lies unexplored. For no matter how much success we may enjoy, the Just Cause for which we are working lies ahead not behind.

2. Build trusting teams

 There is a difference between teams that work together and teams that trust each other. Trust is a feeling. Just as it’s impossible that we demand people to be happy or inspired, it’s impossible to demand someone that they trust us or each other. For the feeling to develop, we have to feel safe expressing ourselves first.

We have to feel safe being ‘vulnerable’. 

Brene Brown said, in Dare to Lead, 

“trust and vulnerability grow together – to betray one is to destroy both.”

3. Study your worthy rival

 A “worthy rival” is another player in the game worth of comparison. It doesn’t matter if they’re playing with a finite or infinite mindset, as long as WE are playing with an infinite mindset. It can be a sworn enemy, a collaborator or a colleague.

Regardless of who they are or where we find them, the main point is that they do something (or many things) as well as or better than us. They make a superior product, command greater loyalty, are better leaders, or act with a clearer sense of purpose than we do. We don’t need to admire everything about them, agree with them, or even like them… We simply acknowledge that they have strengths and abilities from which we could learn a thing or two.

Picking our worthy rival

We get to choose our own Worthy Rivals. We would be wise to select them strategically. There is no value in picking other payers whom we constantly outflank simply to make ourselves feel superior. that has little or no value to our own growth. 

Tip - We choose our worthy rivals because there is something about them that reveals to us our weaknesses and pushes us to constantly improve. This constant improvement is essential if we want to be strong enough to stay in the game.

4. Prepare for existential flexibility

 An Existential flexibility doesn’t happen at the founding of the company, it happens when the company is fully formed and functioning. To infinite-minded players, staying on the current path is the bigger risk. They embrace the uncertainty. Failure to flex, they believe, will significantly restrict their ability to advance the Cause. They fear staying the course may even lead to the eventual demise of the organisation. The motivation of the infinite-minded player to Flex is to advance the Cause, even if it disrupts the existing business model.

Existential Flex is bigger than the normal day-to-day flexibility required to run an organisation. We must not confuse this with shiny-object syndrome. When a true Existential Flex occurs (not a short-term silver bullet chasing change of direction) it is clear to all those who believe in the Cause why it happened. Though they may not enjoy the upheaval and short-term stress such a change may cause, they all agree it is worth it and want to do it. Shiny-object syndrome leaves people flummoxed and exhausted rather than inspired.

At some point, every single organisation will need to make a flex. It may not happen during any individual leaders’ tenure – some leaders may never had to make this change. But part of EVERY leaders’ responsibility is to breed a new batch of leaders that hold the infinite mindset. So even though YOU may never need to flex, the leaders you’re grooming and growing need to be open and willing to Flex themselves.

Tip – Requirements for a flex is adhering to the Just Cause as the guiding light, and maintaining a culture rich with Trusting Teams.

6. Show the courage to lead

 The Courage To Lead is a willingness to take risks for the good of an unknown future. The risks are real. It is much easier to tinker with the month, the quarter and the year, but to make decisions with an eye to the distant future is much more difficult. These long term decisions may cost us in the short term. It takes courage to lead to make decisions counter to the current standards of business and it take the Courage to Lead to ignore the pressure of outside parties who are not invested in or believers in our just cause.