Book Review: "The Infinite Game" by Simon Sinek
Sinek, Simon. The Infinite Game. Penguin USA, 2019.
Review
By now if you have read my other reviews then you know I have been a big fan of Simon Sinek’s work. So much in fact, that it only took me a couple days to get through this audiobook. I pretty much binged it like a Netflix special on a rainy day and savored every moment of it. As you might expect, I love the message from this book. I have a great appreciation for how Simon Sinek reads his own book with the same enthusiasm and articulation as he does in his in-person presentations. You can check out the link from below if you want to get a basic understanding of some of the concepts in this book.
Simon Sinek's YouTube: The Infinite Game Playlist
Key Takeaways
Lead with an Infinite Mindset
“When it is our time to leave the game, we will look back on our lives and our careers and say, I lived a life worth living. More importantly, when we imagine what the future holds, we will see how many people we have inspired to carry on the journey without us.”
This statement alone is so profound and moving. It instantly elevates any work by adapting a mindset and purpose that is beyond yourself. This infinite mindset bestows on you a responsibility to challenge the status quo. A responsibility to reach beyond the routine tasks assigned to you and bring forth solutions which benefit those who will do those same tasks in the future. As great as it sounds, it is not an easy mindset to adapt. I struggle daily to see beyond the work that is in front of me and how it will impact me in the short term. My millennial need for instant gratification drives me to seek out these short-term solutions. I strive to recognize and correct this mentality so that I the work I do now can lead to a strong foundation and better work in the future.
A Trusting Team
“The best antidote – and inoculation – against ethical fading is an infinite mindset. Leaders who give their people a Just Cause to advance and give them an opportunity to work with a Trusting Team to advance it will build a culture in which their people can work toward the short-term goals while also considering the morality, ethics and wider impact of the decisions they make to meet those goals. Not because they are told to. Not because there is a checklist that requires it. Not because they took the company’s online course on “acting ethically.” They did so because it’s the natural thing to do. We act ethically because we don’t want to do anything that would do damage to the advancement of the Just Cause. When we feel a part of a Trusting Team, we don’t want to let down our teammates. We feel accountable to our team and the reputation of the organization, not just to ourselves and our ambitions. When we feel part of a group that cares about us, we want to do right by that group and make our leaders proud. Our standards naturally rise.”
This paragraph says so much that I could not find a way to reduce it and so I shared it with you in its entirety. Notice the capitalization on Trusting Team, which instantly makes it a proper noun. When do you go from a trusting team to a Trusting Team? A Trusting Team is a team in which the trust has taken on a life of its own. This is when the culture of trust is so strong, that each member of the team bares the weight of each other’s burdens. It is a team that has reached complete selflessness. In a time where we are constantly seeing high profile public cases where individuals compromise on their ethics, this sort of team may feel like a fantasy. No individual is perfect, and no team is perfect, but Sinek’s vision for a Trusting Team gives us a goal we can all strive for.
A Just Cause
"A Just cause must be:
- For something, affirmative and optimistic
- Inclusive, open to all those who would like to contribute
- Service oriented, for the primary benefit of others
- Resilient, able to endure political, cultural, and technological change
- Idealistic, big, bold, and ultimately achievable"
Having a Just Cause is not a novel idea. However, when it is broken down in this way, it makes it easier to evaluate whether a company or entity has a Just Cause. Any employee, current or perspective, could look at a company’s mission statement with these guiding principles and determine whether the company has a Just Cause which they can support and grow around. A great Just Cause can move people to do great things.
Final Thoughts
When you combine this audiobook with all the social media and YouTube videos from Simon Sinek, the message becomes more than words on a page. The message is a movement that is inspiring the new generation of leaders to think about their work in bigger and better ways. He is not the first to talk about the Infinite game and surely, he won’t be the last. I thank Simon Sinek for continuing to share his high-quality work and continuing to inspire young leaders like myself.
Want to read it, sounds interesting.