Playing The Long Game – Get More Out Of Your Team By Doing Less

It is no secret that people have a hard time making a diet work.

A Harvard study put nearly 22,000 overweight or obese adults on several different diets and found a majority of them regained the weight they initially lost.

The issue wasn’t the type of diet, but whether they could stick with it.

So how does understanding why people struggle to keep to their diet help you be a better leader?

Finite Game vs Infinite Game

In his book The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek talks about the difference between a finite game and an infinite game.

In a finite game, there are known rules and known players, and the end is fixed.

People are successful on the diet when it is fixed. They see it as a finite game.

They do the diet, and they lose the weight. Game over.

The trouble is that they are living in an infinite game. Their body doesn’t just stay at that weight after they lose it. They need to continue living a healthy lifestyle to keep the weight off.

Health is an infinite game.

And so is work.

Health is Wealth and There is No Crisis

People can’t work like there is always a crisis, and something more urgent than the other tasks doesn’t make it a crisis.

Teams, where everything is on high alert, are going to be stressed and less efficient than teams that are calm and rested.

There might be one true crisis in a year, maybe two if it is a bad year, but something urgent doesn’t make it a crisis.

In a crisis, and people have to work longer hours and have to rush things through, they will also need rest and recovery afterwards.

People work better when they are in the flow state and need rest after stress.

Play Infinitely

The leader who plays the finite game will go from project to project thinking that one has finished and it has no relationship with the next one.

They will wear their team down and people will underperform and quit.

The good leader will understand the infinite game and know that people are not machines and will encourage people to take breaks. Knowing the difference between the most work and the best work.

Sometimes the way to be most effective is to get your team to stop working.