12/6/2019 Workday BrandVoice: Simon Sinek: Applying The Infinite Game Mindset To Business

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Simon Sinek: Applying The Infinite

Game Mindset To Business
Workday BRANDVOICE | Paid Program
Leadership

By Greg Thomas, Staff Writer, Workday

It was Jan. 30, 1968, the eve of the Lunar New Year. In Vietnam, this holiday is known
as Tet, and tradition on Tet calls for a ceasefire in time of war. However, that tradition
served as the cover for a series of surprise attacks—known as the Tet Offensive—
launched by the North Vietnamese against U.S. troops.

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12/6/2019 Workday BrandVoice: Simon Sinek: Applying The Infinite Game Mindset To Business

What happened next poses an interesting question, said optimist and author Simon
Sinek at a recent Workday conference. Despite the American forces countering each
attack—and incurring a few thousand casualties in stark comparison to North
Vietnam’s loss of 35,000 troops—the Tet Offensive is widely considered the turning
point that led to the U.S.’s defeat in the Vietnam War.

Sinek asked: How do you win all the battles and still lose the war?

“If we look at the Vietnam War as a whole, we’ll see that America actually won almost
all the major battles,” he said. “It raises a question that we don’t fully understand
winning and losing, that there are other definitions of winning that exist.”

That other definition of winning is playing the “infinite game”—or rather, leading with
an “infinite mindset,” Sinek said. Below are highlights from his talk and a conversation
I had with him just after.

Can you elaborate on the concept of an infinite game versus finite

game?

James Carse wrote a book in 1986 called “Finite and Infinite Games.” Finite games are
defined as known players, fixed rules, and an agreed-upon objective. An infinite game
defined as known and unknown players, the rules are changeable, and the objective is
not to win—the objective is to keep playing, keep perpetuating the game.

When you pit a finite player against a finite player, the system is stable. When you pit
an infinite player versus an infinite player, the system is also stable. Problems arise
when you pit a finite player against an infinite player. The finite player is playing to wi
and an infinite player is playing to keep playing. As a result, they will make very
different strategic choices.

What ends up happening is that the finite player will always find themselves in a
quagmire, racing through the will and resources they need to stay in the game. This is
what happened to the United States in Vietnam. It’s not so much that America lost the
war, it’s that America was fighting to win and the North Vietnamese were fighting for
their lives. America didn’t lose, they ran out of the will or the resources to stay in the
game and dropped out of it.

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The minute you have senior executives obsessing

about the short game, the game is lost.

How does the concept of the infinite game mindset apply in business

There is no such thing as winning business—it doesn’t exist. We can have wins inside a
business like you can have battles, but there’s no such thing as “winning” business. Th
problem is too many business owners, too many leaders don’t know the game they’re
playing. They talk about being number one, being the best, beating their competition.
Based upon what agreed-upon metrics? Based upon what agreed upon timeframes?
There’s no such thing.

When we play with a finite mindset in the infinite game, there are a few very consisten
and predictable things that happen. Over the course of time, you will see a decline in
trust, cooperation, and innovation. Eventually, your organization will run out of the w
or the resources to stay in the game. We call it bankruptcy; we call it a merger and
acquisition.

What factors shape an infinite mindset?

First, you have to have a just cause. A cause so just that you would willingly sacrifice
your interest to advance that cause.

Second, you have to have trusting teams. It means that we work with and for people
such that we can raise our hands and say, “I made a mistake or I’m scared or I have
troubles at home and they’re affecting my work,” without any fear of humiliation and
retribution.

Third, you have to have a worthy rival. They reveal to us our weaknesses; that’s what
makes us so uncomfortable in their presence or when their names come up. Instead of
getting angry about them, try to learn what it is about them that people admire and lov
so much, and maybe focus that energy into working on ourselves. Self-improvement.
Every day. Constantly.

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Fourth, you have to have the capacity for existential flexibility. This is much bigger tha
the daily flexibility that we need to have in our jobs. An existential flex is the capacity t
make a dramatically huge strategic shift in an entirely new direction to advance our
cause.

And finally, you have to have the courage to lead. That means the courage to say,
“That’s bad for business, and I’m going to do it differently.” People may call you naïve
and say you don’t understand the business. You may say they don’t understand the
game they’re playing. That takes tremendous courage.

Regarding existential flexibility—how can companies structure their

organization in a way that promotes this agile mindset?

When I talk about existential flexibility, I’m talking about the ability to massively shift
an entire business model because it’s the right thing to do to advance the movement.
Why is it that the technology industry invented the electronic book, and not the
publishing industry? Because publishing thought they were in the book business, not
the reading business. Why is it that the movie industry and the television industry
didn’t invent Netflix? It’s because companies can be so preoccupied with protecting th
status quo they don’t make these existential flexes until they’re forced to, and then
they’re playing defense the entire time.

In order for you to have the capacity for existential flexibility you better have a crystal
clear just cause, because that’s what will direct the decisions. Also, you better work wit
people who love you and trust you because there’s going to be short-term pain, and
you’re going to have to have people who are going to go along with you because they
believe that it’s worth it.

Must a company make a choice whether they’re leading with a finite

game or an infinite strategy when it comes to business operations? O
is there a way where short-term goals can interplay with long-term
vision?

They’re not competing ideas. The infinite game is a context within which finite games
exist, and it’s understanding that context. For example, if we want our people only to b
finite-driven, then our frontline employees will enforce the rules unscrupulously
because that’s what protects the bottom line. But of course, we want them to be a little
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12/6/2019 Workday BrandVoice: Simon Sinek: Applying The Infinite Game Mindset To Business

more concerned with the long game, which is why we ask them to offer good judgment
and good customer service, and sometimes do something that may cost the company a
small amount of money, because it protects customer relationships.

So, we have an inherent sense that there’s something bigger than the finite game. But i
we can make that thing specific, and have a sense of where the company’s actually goin
in the infinite game, that empowers every level of employee to use their judgment to d
the right thing, for now and for the future. It’s an incredibly empowering idea.

Of course, the finite game still matters—making your end-of-the-year goal is importan
as a metric of speed and distance. But it’s not the end all, be all; we don’t have to beat
ourselves up or fire people because they miss a number. That’s where we lose the
concept of the infinite game. It’s one mile within a marathon, and this marathon never
ends.

And that kind of brings it back to the notion of leadership, right? If

what we’re trying to do today, this quarter, this year, didn’t happen,
leaders need to make sure people understand we still have this longe
game we’re playing.

Correct. And we expect that our most senior leaders are the ones most preoccupied wit
that infinite game, because the frontline employees have to be preoccupied with the
short game with a little bit of acknowledgment to the long game. But the minute you
have senior executives obsessing about the short game, the game is lost.

What’s your advice for folks to shift towards more of the infinite gam
mindset?

Most of us are playing with a finite mindset and haven’t given our people any reason to
build a company without us. That’s what it means to lead with an infinite mindset: Tha
we will leave our organizations in better shape than we found them, and that we will
build organizations that inspire other people to want to continue to build them withou
us.

This story was originally published on the Workday blog. For more stories like this,
click here.

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12/6/2019 Workday BrandVoice: Simon Sinek: Applying The Infinite Game Mindset To Business

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