The infinite game of coworking

Have you heard the term “infinite game?”

Simon Sinek popularized it in his book of the same name, but his inspiration was the late Dr. James Carse, who introduced the term in his 1986 book, Finite and Infinite Games.

According to Dr. Carse, a finite game is one with known players, fixed rules, and agreed upon objectives. It’s a zero-sum game, in which one person’s gain is balanced by another person’s loss. There is a winner and a loser.

In an infinite game, however, you have known and unknown players, which means new players can join at any time; the rules are changeable, which means every player can play however they want; and the objective is to perpetuate the game and stay in it as long as possible

Coworking is an Infinite Game

Members come and members go; the culture of the space and community evolves depending on who’s in it and what they’re working on; and the more members participate in—and contribute to—their coworking community, the more value they get out of being a member. There is no fixed timeline for coworking, and the game continues as long as members participate.

My first home coworking space was a fully formed community that I got dropped into and immediately started participating in. However, when I moved back to Utah, my home coworking space had only been open two weeks and we didn’t have a clear vibe or culture yet.

So I started teaching monthly workshops in the space, which did three things:

1. It allowed me to pour into the emerging community
2. It helped supercharge connections in the space
3. I learned what my fellow members were working on

Ownership and Belonging

The best way to give someone a sense of ownership and belonging in your space and community is to ask them to contribute to it.

And when you have a good handful of people who are all contributing to your space and community, making connections and spending time together, you become a model of an infinite game, where there are no winners and losers and the point is to keep playing.

In an infinite game, everyone plays in a way that works for them, and the agreed upon objective is that everyone’s work and day gets better in a coworking space.

The positive-sum promise of coworking is long-term growth and collaboration rather than competition. Which makes coworking spaces social capital superchargers.

So, as you move forward in your community building, remember that you’re playing an infinite game, which has the potential to transform the lives and businesses of the people willing to play.