Very frequently we associate integrity with “speaking the truth”.
There are sitiuations for e.g. the Facebook data breach saga wherein Mark Zuckerberg confessed before one and all admitting the mistake.
Acts such as these should not be confused with “integrity”.These are more of damage control.
True integrity is when the leader has the guts to admit an act of wrongdoing before a public outcry or scandal surfaces up.
Simon Sinek highlights this in his book titled “The Infinite Game”.
CVS Caremark in Feb 2014 , declared that it would stop selling cigarettes in all its stores.This was in line with the broader health care commitment it had embarked on.
For many Wall street pundits this seemed a suicidal move that would cost it revenues to the tune of billions of dollars.
But what transpired was magical.All those who predicted that cigarette sales from CVS would shift to other local stores were taken by surprise.
The move by the infinite minded player CVS had a lasting impact on the population who started reducing cigarette consumption and hence instead of shift in revenue due to sale of cigarettes the cigarette consumption itself drastically reduced.
After a initial setback due to fall in share prices , as a result of this move , the share prices of CVS recovered since this was taken in a very positive manner by the employees and population in general.
In line with its infinite minded vision CVS Caremark changed its named to CVS Health in Sep 2014.This proves beyond doubt that an infinite minded vision is always for the long run and the risk taken proves its worth in the long run.
Simon Sinek mentions about the same in his book titled “The Infinite Game”
The renowned professor who is known for the very famous book titled “Finite And Infinite Games”.
Finite Games have fixed set of players , fixed set of rules , playing for a fixed duration with finite resources.The goal is to win in the finite game.
Whereas in an infinite game there are no fixed rules.The players may choose to play or drop out since the duration is infinite in nature.There is nothing like winning , in an infinite game.
This is the book and concept that inspired Simon Sinek to write his book titled “The Infinite Game”.
An infinite game is one where the players are not fixed , there are no clearly defined rules and no fixed timelines.Any number of players can enter or exit at any stage.
In such a scenario the two important factors are 1) will & 2) resources
An infinite player’s goal is to use the “will”(motivation , will power , inspiration etc. other human aspects) to advance the resources(would mean profit , money) in order to frustrate others who lose the will and drain out their resources & hence finally quit the game.
Thus at one time one player may be ahead and at another time the same player may be behind.Tbus an infinite player understands the fact that there is nothing like “winning” in an infinite game.The sole goal should be self advancement to keep playing.
Simon Sibek’s book titled “The Infinite Games” touches upon these aspects and extends these concepts to business and life.
When Steve Jobs and his team at Apple visited Xerox PARC , Palo Alto CA in 1979 they were introduced to the new GUI based concept.
Though Apple had made significant investments in command based interface for its Apple PCs , being an infinite minded leader he exercised “Existential Flex” and decided to adopt GUI for its Macintosh to be released in the next 4 years.
Needless to say he faced quite a lot of resistance from his own employees who were not comfortable with disruption.
The fact that the risk paid off is ample testimony to the fact that an infinite minded leader can preempt disruption in enabling an organization to reach great heights in an infinite game.
Simon Sinek makes a mention of this in “The Infinite Game”
Steve Sasson is an American engineer who in as early as 1974 is believed to have invented the first digital camera.
Kodak the pioneer of film photography had made huge investments in vertical integration involving “film based” analog photography.
Steve Sasson had put forward the idea of embracing digital photography to Kodak leadership.Unfortunately since Kodak was being led by finite minded leaders at that time, noone was willing to exercise existential flex.
Kodak knowingly turned deaf ear to technology disruption and paid a heavy price when Nikon dominated digital photography and made Kodak bankrupt by 2012.
Indeed a pity and classical case of what happens when finite minded leaders are blinded by unknowns in the infinite game.
Simon Sinek’s book titled “The Infinite Game” makes a mention of the same.
Whenever a new idea arises , need not always mean it has merit.
Frequently followers of leaders who need a group of “yes” men around , feel the need to say “yes” to a new thought or idea espoused by a finite minded leader.
More often than not since these ideas do advance a “just cause” , these lead to distraction and the followers enticed by such ideas are eventually flummoxed and exhausted.
Hence the need to be judicious to stay away from them.
Simon Sinek’s “The Infinite Game” makes a mention of this.
For more details on this , please refer to tge following link:(Source personalexcellence)
Existential flexibility is the ability of an infinite minded leader to initiate a disruption to a strategy or business model in order to advance a just cause.
To explain this in more details, very frequently it may so happen in an infinite game , a just cause may become fuzzy and adoption of new strategy , technology , model may be required , albeit at a cost to stay relevant.
Needlessly to say this would involve risk and beyond the realm of a finite minded leader who would be more comfortable with the status quo.
Simon Sinek mentions this in his book titled “The Infinite Game”
Learn from the following wikipedia link , more about James Sinegal the former CEO of COSTCO whose investment of “will” over “resources” has made COSTCO wholesale what it is today.
A truly infinite minded leader who finds a mention in many of Simon Sinek’s videos.