Playing the game

The infinite game

Recently I stumbled across a concept that not only inspired me but reignited a belief I’ve always had but somehow neglected, fortunately it wasn’t forgotten.

I often speak about constant improvement and augmentation; Simon Sinek shares a similar message in his recent book “The infinite game” it’s a similar concept but he phrases and packages it exceptionally well. Hearing him speak about finite and infinite games made me realise and remember what I’ve always and hope others in business and life also strive to be, an infinite player.

Simon in his definition simply states that “in finite games, like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed, and the endpoint is clear. The winners and losers are easily identified in infinite games, like business or politics or life itself, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined endpoint”

Playing the infinite game

This means if you take part in an infinite game you have to understand there is no end point but rather a continuation of consistent effort, trial, tribulations, successes and failures which do not follow a pattern per say but take turns as the game evolves. Many business leaders outline their vision against a finite goal working towards being the “best” at something, or being the “number 1” ranked restaurant in their city of operation but that is a really short sighted way to view things and what makes it worse is your success is characterised by where you are ranked next to your competition, it isn’t defined by where you see the business currently, where you would like it to be and what success means in terms of the experience your customers and employees have.

The infinite player understands that short term victories are short lived and that a business should attach its day to day functions to something bigger, a vision that’s tangible but not necessarily measurable because the game doesn’t come to an end, only the players leave but it remains.

For example if a sports merchandising company’s vision is to give athletes the best sporting experience possible with their equipment, they will always have something big to work towards because there is always room for improvement but if the same company aims to sell the most equipment and his this as their vision, the company loses a sense of direction the moment their sales figures are up because they’ve reached their primary objective and in the truest sense of things no longer have something to work towards but aiming to maintain the position they currently find themselves in.

Finite and Infinite players

In the workplace the it’s easy to spot the difference between a finite and infinite player, a finite player is working with the next quarter review in mind, the next promotion, the next item to tick of my list, which is good, its great and important to measure progress but so is the ability to commit ones self to a greater cause, working towards ensuring your clients get the most value from your services, that is an infinite player, the immediate gratification and rewards aren’t the primary drivers they are merely milestones, the infinite players plays to ensure that the experience is fruitful and all those involved get the most out of it through growth, profit an experience, it never comes to an end the existing players just leave things in a better condition for those that are yet to play.