Video Analysis Essay on The Infinite Game

Introduction

The video The Infinite Game: How to Lead in the 21st Century defines the mindset that leaders should develop to be more inspiring and innovative in building their organizations. The speaker Simon Sinek compares leadership to an infinite game where rules keep on changing, there is no defined endpoint, and the players come and go. In this perspective, the Sinek used this scenario to teach the audience that the struggles that the present-day organizations face are because the leaders have a fixed mindset that cannot address the challenges in an ever-changing environment. Such leaders are playing an infinite game with their finite mindset and hence lag in morale, discretionary efforts, innovation, and consequently, organizational performance.

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Sinek sets the stage by narrating a hypothetical incidence that occurred in January 1958, where Vietnamese armies launched a surprise attack against the US forces. While the military from Vietnam had never won any battle against the US forces for decades, they believed that they were capable of launching a sudden attack that would give them victory. However, the US military managed to repulse significant attacks and ultimately lost less than 1,000 troops, unlike Vietnam, where more than 35,000 of its soldiers died in the battle (Sinek 00: 01:31 - 00:02:13). The speaker used this incidence to bring to light the concept of winning and losing from an organizational perspective. The point here is that leaders should have the right strategies for their organizations, or otherwise, they are setting a path to drain all the available resources. Just like an infinite game, where a player cannot be the best but instead be either ahead or behind, leaders should understand the environment to be in better positions in highly competitive settings.

Leaders should focus on specific objectives and agreed upon metrics instead of strategizing how to win on undefined measures. This strategy is the basis to utilize the resources effectively and hence implies that it is the right mindset towards leadership. However, the speaker cautions leaders that enter a competition with a final mindset. The predictable outcome underlying this approach to leadership is a decline in trust and collaboration, which are critical for the success of an organization (Sinek 00: 05:50 - 00: 06: 56). The speaker further points out four aspects that leaders should accomplish to win in a competitive environment. These are adjusting goals, have a trusting team, be a courageous leader, and be flexible. The same way an infinite game has no end, leaders should progressively improve organizational factors such as brand image and corporate structure.

Putting the interests of the organization first over personal aspirations, nurturing a culture of trust and focusing on people instead of profits is a critical step to success in a competitive environment. The speaker says that leaders should sacrifice for the betterment of the organization and its people. Moreover, they should develop an attitude of 'I am a competitor' since it is the basis of progressive improvement. This point, however, suggests that leaders should not focus on the competitors but instead use them to strategize how to address organizational weaknesses. Through an interactive program with the audience, the speaker further emphasized that leaders should be ready to sacrifice for others as a strategy to win trust from the followers. Precisely, an organization is in a better position to beat the competitors where the leader has earned the trust of other people in the organization (Sinek 1:14:35 - 1:15:04).

Conclusion

Conclusively, the talk video encourages leaders to be courageous, innovative, and flexible. A leader that can successfully navigate an organization to win in a competitive environment is the one that nurtures peoples' trust. Accordingly, leaders should have an open mindset to enable them to fit into business dynamics and changes in the surrounding.

Work Cited

Sinek, Simon. "The Infinite Game: How to Lead in the 21st Century." YouTube, 13 May 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=3vX2iVIJMFQ. Accessed 6 June 2019.