Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
So many organizations and individuals are obsessed with winning. But how do you win a game that never really ends? There is no such thing, for example, as "winning" business. Simon Sinek's Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last have helped millions of readers see the hidden rules that govern our behavior. Now The Infinite Game picks up where those books left off, challenging us to rethink our perspective on how organizations really work. This time Sinek explores a deceptively simple question: How do you stay ahead in a game with no end?
Games like basketball and chess are finite, with firm rules and clear endpoints. But business, for example, is infinite -- there's ultimately no such thing as "winning" because there's always a new set of challenges. Those who thrive in the long run are those who play by infinite rules. They do things that enable them to out-maneuver, out-innovate, and outlast their competitors.
Trying to play an infinite game with a finite mindset can be catastrophic. During the Vietnam War, for instance, America won nearly every battle and killed many more enemy troops but still lost the war. The metrics by which they kept score ultimately didn't matter. The North Vietnamese were willing to endure any hardship for as long as it took to force the Americans to give up. The North Vietnamese played the Infinite Game.
Through a wide range of examples, Sinek explores how infinite players in any field can exhaust their competitors, stay ahead for the long run, and create strong organizations, built to weather nearly any storm. Great leaders instinctively play the infinite game rather than chase short-term gains. Now the rest of us can understand how they do it.
Synopsis
From the New York Times bestselling author of Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last, a bold framework for leadership in today's ever-changing world. How do we win a game that has no end? Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified. Infinite games, games with no finish line, like business or politics, or life itself, have players who come and go. The rules of an infinite game are changeable while infinite games have no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers--only ahead and behind.
The question is, how do we play to succeed in the game we're in?
In this revelatory book, Simon Sinek offers a framework for leading with an infinite mindset. On one hand, none of us can resist the fleeting thrills of a promotion earned or a tournament won, yet these rewards fade quickly. In pursuit of a Just Cause, we will commit to a vision of a future world so appealing that we will build it week after week, month after month, year after year. Although we do not know the exact form this world will take, working toward it gives our work and our life meaning.
Leaders who embrace an infinite mindset build stronger, more innovative, more inspiring organizations. Ultimately, they are the ones who lead us into the future.