Influenced by James P. Carse’s treatise Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility, Sinek’s theory suggests that it’s easy to see the world as margins and dividends, winners and losers – ie, as “finite games.” Finite-minded leaders play to end the game, to win.
But – while that may suffice at a soccer match or in a round of chess – it will not help in life and business, as these types of pursuits are “infinite games.” In these infinite pursuits, there are no clear rules or determinants of winning. Though the finite approach may initially seem like it leads to winning, finite mindsets eventually leave leaders and employees feeling unsafe, unfulfilled, and cynical. Infinite-minded leaders aim to keep playing; to build an organization that thrives in the infinite game and survives for generations of stewards.
Key quote: “Great leaders are the ones who think beyond ‘short term’ versus ‘long term.’ They are the ones who know it is not about the next quarter or the next election; it is about the next generation” (p. xiii). – Simon Sinek
Key Concepts
Finite and Infinite Games. Leaders with a finite mindset focus on the narrow aspect of winning or losing. Leaders with an infinite mindset aim for the horizon and the goal that employees, customers, and stakeholders will continue to contribute to an organization and a plan to leave a thriving culture for the next generation.
Just Cause. The “Just Cause” is the vision for the future that drives a company and makes people willing to sacrifice for the company’s good.
Cause. No Cause. There are four things mistakenly believed to be just causes, but they are not. These are: 1) moon shots, 2) being the best, 3) growth, and 4) corporate social responsibility.
Keeper of the Cause. Sinek believes a true leader sees himself as a Chief Vision Officer, tasked with making sure the company looks “up and out,” while others, such as the CFO and COO, focus down and in.
The Responsibility of Business (Revised). Rather than focus solely on profit, businesses should focus on advancing a purpose, protecting people, and generating profit (to perpetuate the company’s ability to do the first two on this list).
Will and Resources. Instead of asking how to get the most out of your employees, focus on how you can make them grow stronger. This generates a supply of the will to work among the people who work for and with you.
Trusting Teams. Companies that foster trust and vulnerability handle issues frankly and effectively in the light of day rather than staying secret and unaddressed, growing under the surface.
Ethical Fading. “Ethical Fading” is a culture that allows people to do unethical things in service of their own interests, and it can stealthily creep in and undermine a company despite good intentions. Company cultures can stumble under demand, pressures, and incentives. Good people can get hoodwinked by self-deception and structure can take the place of true leadership. Instead, infinite leaders cultivate a company that looks across the horizon and sees the big picture.
Worthy Rival. “Worthy Rivals” are people we look to who cause us to strive to be better in some way. They challenge both the “What” and the “Why” of what we do and make sure we stay humble.
Existential Flexibility. “Existential Flexibility” is the ability to “initiate an extreme disruption to a business model or strategic course in order to more effectively advance a Just Cause” (p. 185).
The Courage to Lead. Courageous leaders are willing to do big things in service of their Just Cause or their people. Courageous acts generate courageous acts: the more courageous decisions you make, the more your courage grows.
Finite and Infinite Games
“An infinite perspective frees us from fixating on what other companies are doing, which allows us to focus on a larger vision. Instead of reacting to how new technology will change our business model, for example, those with infinite mindsets are better able to foresee the applications of new technology” (p. 11).
Prioritizing comparison and winning, finite-minded leaders will structure labor and set corporate and product strategies to meet arbitrary metrics. Their finite maneuvers trickle downward transactionally and entrench in the organization. The resulting tunnel vision shifts employee attention to the urgent, at the expense of the important (p. 17).
For an organization to thrive in an infinite game, Sinek proposes that leaders must 1) “Advance a Just Cause,” 2) “Build Trusting Teams,” 3) “Study your Worthy Rivals,” 4) “Prepare for Existential Flexibility,” and 5) “Demonstrate the Courage to Lead” (pp. 24-25).
Just Cause
“A Just Cause is a specific vision of a future state.” Just Causes are “so appealing that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help advance toward that vision.” It must be affirmative (for, not against), inclusive, service-oriented, resilient, and idealistic (pp. 32-33).
Sinek describes a “Why” as a fixed story of origin that compels us to be who we are. It is a foundation for the Just Cause, which is the pursuit of our ideal future (p. 34).
Sinek explains that most purpose, vision, or mission statements are uninspiring and innocuous at best. They’re often structured around finite objectives like “being the best” or fulfilling a specific service. “Such statements offer us neither a Just Cause to which we would commit ourselves nor a sense of what it’s all for” (pp. 36-37).
An affirmative Just Cause is much more powerful than a cause that’s merely against something. For example, we are not as inspired to reduce poverty as we are to grow the number of people who can provide for themselves and their families. This subtle shift in language makes a profound difference in our motivations (p. 38).
“Only when we can imagine in our mind’s eye the exact version of the world an organization or leader hopes to advance toward will we know which organization or to which leader we want to commit our energies and ourselves” (p. 40).
Keeper of the Cause
Sam Walton articulated the same Just Cause at the beginning of his career and again ten years later. He stated, “Serve the average workin’ American by offering ‘the lowest prices anytime, anywhere.’” At the end of his life, Walton was still true to his vision, saying, “We’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life” (p. 61).
A leader who does not understand a Just Cause well enough to articulate it for their followers risks its dilution and loses their buy-in. Even more so, if nobody has the Courage to Lead the company away from finite-minded temptations, eventually a company will falter (pp. 61-63).
Sinek argues for companies to have a “Chief Vision Officer” responsible for communicating, protecting, and directing the original vision of a better world. Many internal C-level promotions to CEOs struggle to adopt the new responsibility to keep the cause clear. The lack of a clear standard for CEO roles and responsibilities creates an environment encouraging finite play (p. 67).
The Responsibility of Business
In 1970, through his definition of the social responsibility of business, famous economist Milton Friedman established the idea that businesses exist to deliver shareholder profit. In contrast, an earlier definition by Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, proclaims that we only need to attend to the recipient of our product or service and that the interests of the company should come second. “That maxim is so perfectly self-evident,” Smith claims, “that it would be absurd to attempt to prove it.” (p. 72).
According to Sinek, “If we are using a flawed definition of a business to build our companies today, then we are likely also promoting people and forming leadership teams best qualified to play by the finite rules that Friedman espoused – leadership teams that are probably the least equipped to navigate the ethical requirements necessary to avoid exploiting the system for self-gain” (p. 78).
Larry Fink, the founder of BlackRock, argued in his famous 2018 open letter to CEOs, called “A Sense of Purpose,” that companies will ultimately lose the license of their stakeholders if they succumb to short-term pressures. Organizations need some sense of purpose to keep these temptations at bay. His text has become a recent source of optimism for a widespread appreciation of infinite play (p. 84).
Sinek suggests three pillars formulate an infinite-minded definition of business: 1) “advance a purpose,” 2) “protect people,” and 3) “generate profit” to fuel the former two. “The responsibility of business is to use its will and resources to advance a cause greater than itself, protect the people and places in which it operates, and generate more resources so that it can continue doing all those things for as long as possible. An organization can do whatever it likes to build its business so long as it is responsible for the consequences of its actions” (pp. 87-88).
Will and Resources
Resources in business come in the form of EPS, profit, cash flow, etc. Will is much harder to measure and encompasses morale, motivation, inspiration, discretionary effort, and so on. “Will represents the sum of all the human elements that contribute to the health of the organization” (p. 94).
The best way for a leader to tap into the will of employees is to set a safe and resourceful environment where they can naturally thrive. Leaders who learn to espouse an infinite mindset can create those environments as naturally as their followers engage in them (p. 93).
Apple exemplifies the monetary value of will. Their full-time retail employees receive the same stock options, benefits, and education reimbursement as their corporate colleagues. The resources that Apple invests in are made back in decreased recruitment, selection, and training costs – the fruits of a committed workforce (p. 98).
Trusting Teams
Teams who see themselves as merely “working together” operate around finite transactions, not as colleagues in infinite relationships. People learn to hide their mistakes and lie to save face when trust is missing. Without vulnerability, all the cracks in work are hidden or ignored until inevitable fault lines become obvious (pp. 106-107).
Trust-building involves reciprocal risk-taking and repeated affirmation of those risks. It is formally the leader’s responsibility to take the first risk, but their followership must reciprocate to form a circle of safety. Repeated failure to reciprocate creates a sense of distance, then isolation, then fear. “Fear can push us to choose the best finite option at the risk of doing infinite damage” (pp. 117-119).
The leader of the oil rig Shell URSA, the largest the company ever built, was tasked with the team’s safety training. After he and his son attended a successful therapeutic session to aid their relationship, he had his Louisiana roughnecks sit in circles each day and share their feelings. It seemed silly at first, but facades gave way, and over time, the stories deepened. A sense of psychological safety emerged that freed information sharing and removed the stigma around vulnerability. After company-wide implementation, accidents declined 84 percent (pp. 103-106).
Enabling team members to feel safe and develop trust enhances their interactions with customers, the public, and their families. The infinite mindset sees this return to the organization and enhances the overall value of the company (p. 125).
Ethical Fading
“Ethical Fading is a condition in a culture that allows people to act in unethical ways in order to advance their own interests, often at the expense of others, while falsely believing that they have not compromised their own moral principles” (p. 132).
Euphemisms like, “It’s what management wants,” “I gotta put food on the table,” and “It’s the industry standard” are a common way of dissociating from the impact of our decisions or actions (p. 133).
People are more likely to do the right thing in weak, autonomous situations than they are in strong, demanding situations. Finite-mindedness creates those high-pressure situations where ethics suffer (p. 135).
“With each ethical transgression that is tolerated, we pave the road for more and bigger ethical transgressions. Little by little, we change the norms inside a culture of what is acceptable behavior” (p. 143).
Worthy Rival
“A Worthy Rival is another player in the game worthy of comparison. Worthy Rivals may be players in our industry or outside our industry. They may be our sworn enemies, our sometimes collaborators and colleagues.” The way they play the game reveals our weaknesses and inspires us to improve (pp. 161, 174).
Sinek considers Adam Grant his Worthy Rival. In their first appearance on stage together, they both admitted to seeing their own weaknesses reflected in each other’s strengths. The discussion of their complementary inadequacies revealed their respective contributions to their shared Just Cause (p. 160).
“Just Causes exist in our imaginations, but companies and products are real.” It’s easier for us to follow a Just Cause enshrined in a real company or leader than any abstract idea (p. 170).
Existential Flexibility and The Courage to Lead
“Existential Flexibility is the capacity to initiate an extreme disruption to a business model or strategic course in order to more effectively advance a Just Cause.” “Without [a] sense of infinite vision, strategic shifts, even extreme ones, tend to be reactive or opportunistic.” Existential Flexibility is always offensive (pp. 185-186).
Walt Disney was disappointed when Walt Disney Productions first went public. Bureaucracy limited his creativity, shareholder pressure created wage gaps, and new finite affairs distracted him from helping the world escape reality for a while. He sold his shares and took out a loan against his life insurance policy to start Disneyland. Reflecting on the experience, he said a motion picture felt too finished anyway. He stated, “I’ve always wanted to work on something alive, something that keeps growing” (pp. 183-185).
“The Courage to Lead is a willingness to take risks for the good of an unknown future.” Courage, as it relates to the infinite mindset, is our willingness to completely change our perception of how the world works.” It rejects Milton Friedman’s purpose of business and seeks alternatives. This involves holding the company and its leadership to a higher standard than the bounds of the law (pp. 199, 213).
“Great leaders are the ones who think beyond ‘short term’ versus ‘long term.’ They are the ones who know it is not about the next quarter or the next election; it is about the next generation” (p. xiii). – Simon Sinek
Sinek, S. (2019). The Infinite Game. Portfolio/Penguin.