Book Summary: The Infinite Game

  • Posted on 14th Feb 2021
  • /Under Blog

Very much a summary from my own lens, someone who wants to become a better leader. Someone who wants to find a way for both the organisation and the people who work for it to succeed. For the people who actually do the work to feel inspired and fulfilled while making the organisation succeed.

Summary

Finite vs Infinite Games

  • Finite games are played by known players, have fixed rules, an agreed-up objective that when reached, ends the game.
  • Infinite games are played by known and unknown players, no exact agreed-upon rules, the manner in which each player plays is up to them.
  • Infinite games have infinite time horizons with no practical end to the game, there is no ‘winning’. Their primary objective is to keep playing.

Just Cause

  • A Just Cause is a specific visuon 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 visioin.

Worthy Rival

  • A Worthy Rival is another player who can help us become better players, another player worthy of comparison.
  • Something about them reveals to us our weaknesses and pushes us to constantly improve.
  • A Worthy Rival inspires us to take on an attitude of improvement.
  • An infinite mindsent embraces abundance. 
  • In the Infinite Game we accept that “bing the best” is a fool’s errand and that multiple players can do well at the same time
  • Without a Worthy Rival we risk losing our humility and our agility.

Trust

  • Teams are composed of individuals who, like all people, have ambitions, fears, ideas, opinions
    • They want to feel like they matter
  • Trust is the layering of small moments of reciprocal vulnerability over time
  • Trust and vulnerability grow together and to betray one is to destroy both
  • SEALs measure performance and trust and value trust over performance.
    • Team members with high performance and low trust are toxic and self elevating
    • Typical team composition is high trust and medium performance
  • The most anxiety-inducing place to be is alone – where we feel we have to protect ourselves from our own team mates
  • We get the behaviour we reward
  • If you reward toxic, isolated behaviour, that’s what you will get

Will

  • Times of suffering can actually bring a team together
  • Will of people is what drives discretionary effort
  • Resources are limited but we can generate an endless supply of will
  • The order in which your organisation phrases its values matters
    • 1. Growth 2. Customers 3. Our people
    • 1. Our People 2. Customers 3. Growth
    • Put your people before shareholders and ultimately, your shareholders will get their growth
  • “This is frustrating, Labor is being paid first again. Shareholders get leftovers.”
    • Stock Market Analyst when American Airlines gave employees a mid-contract salary increase.

Performance

  • Drive performance by creating an environment where information and effort flows freely
  • Prioritise trust over performance and performance will follow
  • We should promote consistency over intensity

Leadership

  • A Leader’s job is to create new leaders
  • Leaders are not responsible for results, they are responsible for people who are responsible for results
  • People trust their leaders when they do things that make them feel psychologically safe
  • Marines will measure the inputs of their leaders in training, not mission success.
    • They assess if theirs leaders and teams have what it takes to perform at higher levels over time

Leadership Qualities

  • Honesty
  • Integrity
  • Courage
  • Resiliency
  • Perseverance
  • Judgement
  • Decisiveness