“Hire for culture and you can always teach the skills later” – Simon Sinek
All such organizations have a vision that would aim towards advancing a just cause larger than the organization itself.
Once employees are aligned with the culture they would give their blood sweat and tear.
A “just cause”as defined by Simon Sinek in “The Infinite Game” is a specific vision of the future state that does not yet exist; a future state so appealing that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help advance toward that vision.
Such a vision aims at benefits for others in mind without being selfish minded.
Such a vision makes hiring easier wherein passionate people in line with this vision can be onboarded to advance the vision.
Such a just cause makes the people give their blood sweat and tear on being inspired by the broad purpose.Hence a “just cause” is a pre-requiste for survival in an infinite game.
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”
For playing the infinite game of business with an infinite mindset the modern day CEO needs to be a visionary putting people’s priorities first over bottom line ,stock markets etc.
A finite mindset wherein bottom line , profit margins become the first priority over people issues , though successful in the short term can lead to severe detrimental effects in the long term.
This is why the need of the hour is no longer a CEO but a CVO(Chief Vision Officer) who would put people priorities first , make the life of employees meaningful and inspiring in advancing the “just cause” of the organization.
Simon Sinek makes a mention of the same in his book titled “The Infinite Game”
Nikolai Vavilov was a renowned Soviet agronomist , botanist & geneticist who had a vision of creating a bank of plant seeds to protect the world from famine and similar disasters due to the unavailability of crops and plant seeds.
His vision became the “just cause” which got his fellow doctors so engaged that even during the emergency situation in Leningrad they were prepared to protect the seed bank at the cost of their lives.
At a time wherein during the Nazi invasion in Leningrad , starvation forced people consume zoo animals , cats , dogs these followers of Vavilov gave their lives trying to protect the seed bank because they were drawn by the larger vision of Vavilov.
By means of this example , Simon Sinek very aptly proves why “just cause” is a cornerstone of playing infinite games.
Just cause is a vision which has not been realized but a cause that is worthy enough for believers to even be ready to sacrifice their lives.
The goal of an infinite fame is not to win but to keep playing for the future realization of something bigger than ourselves.
Hence the importance of the just cause especially to a leader to keep the followers engaged.
Thus an organization which enables the employees to work for a just cause are ones where employees end up loving their jobs.
Simon Sinek makes a mention of this in his book titled “The Infinite Game”.