- North Vietnamese broke the tradition of not fighting on Tet. They lost 35,000 of the 85,000. They lost 3.5 million over the 10 years. America lost 58,000. America won most of the battles. If you can decimate your enemy and winning the battles, how can you lose the war?
- James Carson defined two different types of games: finite and infinite games. Finite: known players, fixed rules, agreed upon objective. Infinite: known & unknown players, changing rules, changing objectives.
- When you put finite players against infinite players, you will always face problems. Finite is playing to win. Infinite players play to keep playing.
- America was fighting to win. Vietnamese were fighting for their lives. America didn’t lose; they quit the game.
- There is no such thing as winning in life, winning in your career.
- At Microsoft summit, they spent time talking about beating Apple. At Apple summit, they were talking about how to get teachers better, how to get better education.
- There is no such thing as winning or losing, just ahead or behind. The only true competitor in an infinite game is yourself.
- We use sports analogies to talk about businesses. It’s not the same.
- Five things you need to lead in an infinite game: just cause; trusting teams; worthy rival; existential flexibility; courage to lead
- Just cause
- A just cause is just when you’re willing to sacrifice to advance the cause.
- One of my favorite just causes is found in the Declaration of Independence. They set out to revolt based upon the idea that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights.
- You’ll never actually get there, but we’ll die fighting.
- When they wrote those words, they were talking about Protestant white men. They thought we might need to include Catholics. We continued down that path: end slavery, women’s suffrage, civil rights, gay rights, etc.
- Vision statement has to be in the affirmative.
- It has to be resilient. Can it withstand culture, political and technological changes?
- It has to be inclusive. It has to serve as an invitation to all that would like to contribute.
- It has to be service-oriented. The primary benefit of anyone’s contribution has to go to others, rather than the contributor. It needs to flow down stream.
- The primary benefit of leadership should go to others, those you are leading. If a leader is making choices for their own benefit, it’s a failure of just cause.
- The greatest organizations have the will to serve.
- Trusting teams
- I stayed at Four Seasons in Las Vegas. It’s a beautiful hotel. It’s beautiful because of the people who work there. When you roam the halls, you can tell that they want to say hello, not just told to say hello.
- Poured a cup of coffee, barista was Noah. I asked Noah, “Do you like your job?” Noah said, “I love my job.”
- Love is emotional. Do you love your wife? I like her.
- Throughout the day, managers will walk past me and ask how I am doing. I also work at Caesar’s Palace. Only at the Four Seasons do I feel like I can be myself.
- How do we get the most out of my people? They are not a towel that you can ring. You want to create an environment where people can do their best.
- If you do not have trusting teams, you have people showing up everyday lying, hiding, thinking. They’ll hoard information.
- Person tried to board before their group was called. It was treated like it was a felony. “If I don’t follow the rules, I can get fired.” Guess who suffers? The customer and the company.
- The reason we like Southwest is because people feel safe and their people are empowered to do the job for which they hired.
- The infinite game is bigger than just hitting the goal. It’s about sustaining to be in the game for the long haul.
- Worthy rivals
- There is another person who does what I do. He’s in my space. His work is exceptionally good. I hate him.
- I had mistakenly viewed him as a competitor. I had created a finite game where there was none.
- We shared the same cause. I no longer view him as my competitor; he’s my worthy rival.
- We can have personal rivals, individuals who intimidate us. They’ll push us to be better versions of ourselves.
- We can have tactical rivals, companies that do something better than us. They push us to get better.
- The Harry Potter ride at Universal. The ride is 2.5 minute ride. The line was amazing. Disney started fixing their line experience.
- We can have existential rivals. Where someone’s entire world view is completely different. Soviet Union versus America. They remind us of what the opposite looks like.
- I’m thankful for the business principles of the 80s. It reminds me of why I exist.
- Existential flexibility
- You may never have to go through this. When your bubble is challenged, are you willing to blow up your business?
- Steve Jobs – Apple is having success. They go to Xerox Park. They see the graphic user interface. He wanted to invest. His team said, “We can’t. We’ll blow up our company.” His reply, “Better us than someone else.” It led to the MacIntosh.
- Kodak developed the digital photo. They did nothing with it for fear of blowing up the film business. They had a 10 year lead and did nothing. They went bankrupt.
- Courage to lead
- It takes remarkable courage to say I believe in something bigger than myself. I am willing to make massive change if its better for the long term.
- What does it mean to live in the infinite life? Clearly our lives our finite but life keeps going on after us.
- We can live by finite rules: to be the richest, to have the best, to get ahead of them. When you die, you don’t win life; you just die.
- Or you can choose to live in the infinite. Others will say, I am better because you were in my life. We will live on forever because of the impact we have in others.
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