I stumbled across an interesting piece the other day about the “game of business”. And I think it has some important things to teach us about how we approach each day of our working lives in the construction industry. Let me explain.

The concept of game theory is that there are two kinds of game: finite and infinite. In a finite game – a football match, for example – there are known players, fixed rules and agreed-upon objectives. After 90 minutes (plus any extra time) there is a result, achieved according to the agreed-upon rules. However, in infinite games, there are an unknown and variable number of players, the rules are changeable or unclear and the objective of the game is to keep it going for as long as possible. The game is basically eternal – players drop out when they run out of resources or the will to carry on, and new players join, but there are never any winners, because there are no agreed rules for what winning means.

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