Notes on The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
Photo by Compagnons on Unsplash
Read this if you read nothing else
Business isn't a game you win. It's a game you stay in.
Sinek borrows the idea from philosopher James Carse. A finite game has known players, fixed rules and an agreed end, like football. An infinite game has changing players, changeable rules, and one objective: to keep playing.
Most leaders run a finite playbook in an infinite game, and trust, cooperation and innovation quietly drain away.
The story that frames it
In the 1968 Tet Offensive, America won nearly every major battle in Vietnam, and still lost the war. Roughly 58,000 Americans died, against over three million Vietnamese.
One side was playing to win battles. The other was playing to stay in the fight, however long it took.
The five practices
Advance a just cause. A purpose so worth serving that you'd turn down a higher-paid job or give up evenings for it. You don't need to be a visionary. You need to find a vision worth joining.
Build trusting teams. Sinek calls it a "circle of safety". His example is staff at one Las Vegas hotel who feel they can be themselves, set against a flight attendant who couldn't bend a rule for a customer because she feared losing her job. When people feel safe, customer and company both benefit.
Study your worthy rivals. Admit that someone is better than you at something, learn from them instead of trying to beat them, and wish them well. Sinek's line is that if you trip the other runners, you win the race but you're still a slow runner. He's also against pitting colleagues against each other.
Prepare for existential flexibility. In an infinite game it's the players who disappear, not the game. Be willing to make a dramatic shift in strategy to serve your cause. Apple chose to "blow up" its own plans after seeing the graphical interface at Xerox PARC, and that led to the Mac. Kodak invented the digital camera, protected film instead, and went bankrupt three years after its digital patents ran out.
Demonstrate the courage to lead. Making the unpopular long-term call, and admitting you don't have all the answers. He points to Walt Disney betting everything on a vision nobody else could see yet.
The anecdote worth remembering
Sinek spoke at both a Microsoft and an Apple education summit.
At Microsoft, most of the executives' time went on how to beat Apple. At Apple, every executive talked about helping teachers teach and students learn.