{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Just Cause","description":"In his best-selling book The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek writes that there are fundamentally two ways of interacting with the world.  In one view \u2014 the one traditionally taught in business school \u2014 the world is finite in size. In order to get a bigger piece of a fixed pie, you must take from someone else.  In the other view, the world is infinite and you can\u2019t even imagine how big the pie might get. You focus your energy on expanding the pie so that everyone can win. Competition is for losers Peter Thiel wrote that competition is for losers. If you look at the world as a competition with others, you\u2019re setting yourself up for a finite game, which is a losing game. Make them owe you A lot of times people are hesitant to give too much because they\u2019re worried that the other party is not going to reciprocate. That\u2019s a finite-game thinking. In the infinite game, there is more than enough to go around and the pie is always expanding. Make your customers and anyone else in your life feel like they owe you \u2014 that you\u2019re delivering more value to them than they can give to you.  What\u2019s your just cause? To play an infinite game, start by defining your company\u2019s \u201cjust cause.\u201d This is the reason your company exists, beyond making profits and employing a large workforce. Your company makes money and employs people for some larger reason, and it\u2019s your job to define it.  Three elements of a just cause The three elements of a just cause are: It\u2019s for something. It\u2019s inclusive. It\u2019s service oriented. SpaceX isn\u2019t just building rockets The just cause at SpaceX isn\u2019t building rockets. Elon Musk believes it\u2019s critical to have cost-effective mechanisms to get humans beyond earth for the long-term survival of humanity. His just cause is saving humanity. Netflix wasn\u2019t just renting DVDs When Netflix first started the technology to achieve its just cause \u2014 to bring unlimited entertainment to people\u2019s houses \u2014 didn\u2019t even exist yet. So they started with DVDs and kept working on their bigger vision.  Live your just cause At Music Exchange we recently went through a process to define our just cause. At our core, we believe in the power of markets and that transparency provides the information that people need to be able to transact with one another properly. So that guides everything we do \u2014 even if it\u2019s uncomfortable to post all of our deals publicly. Communicate your company\u2019s humanity There are two main reasons for defining your just cause. One is effectively communicating your company\u2019s humanity to the world. Especially as businesses get larger and people work to maximize efficiency, the human element can get rung out in the process. Defining your just cause and communicating it to employees can help instill what matters in your company. It\u2019s like planting a flag in the ground: \u201cThis is what we stand for.\u201d Millennials workers want meaning Another important reason to state your just cause clearly is that younger workers are searching for meaning in their work. By helping them describe their work in terms that go beyond profits and KPIs, you are putting them in the best possible position for when a friend or family member asks, \u201cSo, what are doing these days?\u201d Unearth the passion Take a close look to find where the meaning and passion lies in your company, and then do the work to summarize and communicate it to employees, customers, future employees, partners and others. Resources Finite and Infinite Games, by James Cross The Infinite Game, by Simon Sinek ","author_name":"Smith Sense","author_url":"http:\/\/smithsense.com","html":"