Is business really a GAME?
Dinesh Karna
Training Consultancy | Chief Facilitator | Trainer | Sales | Leadership | Through highly customised and interactive workshops, we assist organisations achieve their learning and development objectives
What is an INFINITE and a FINITE GAME?
This is a thought provoking question discussed by many, in books and talks called THE GAME THEORY. There are at least two types of games.
In a FINITE GAME the objective of the game is to win. We cannot play alone in FINITE GAMES, we must have an opponent to play against and usually teammates to play with.
To give you an example the game of football, where the rules are set, the objective of the game is to win by scoring goals within a predetermined timeline. Only one person or team can win a finite game, but the non-winners could be ranked at the end. Not everyone can be a CEO or manager, but there are other positions.
In a finite game the rules are fixed and there can be only one winner.
In an INFINITE GAME, the purpose of the game is to simply keep the game in play. There is ‘no’ winning or losing in an INFINITE GAME but rather infinite players drop out if they do not have the means or the resources to continue.
The rules of an INFINITE GAME are changed or are fluid to prevent anyone from winning the game, and to bring as many other persons as possible into play. One good example of an INFINITE GAME is the COLD WAR, where the players kept the game in play and kept changing the rules to continue to stay in play.
Things get interesting when an INFINITE PLAYER goes against and FINITE PLAYER. A good example of this was the Vietnam War, where U.S. was the FINITE PLAYER, playing to win and the Vietcong’s were playing for the lives, they were playing to keep the game in play.
We all know how that turned out with the U.S. going back with their tail between their legs. The same maybe said about the Russian’s when they tried to take Afghanistan. The Russian’s we playing to win and the INFINITE PLAYER were the Afghans, staying in the game to keep the game at play.
So the big question really is, do you think a business should be played as a FINITE GAME or an INFINITE GAME?
Your answer and believes will determine how you manage your teams and ultimately direct the future of the company you work for and run. Sometimes we know the right answer but forget how to keep it at the very core of our being to shape the future of our businesses and ultimately our lives.