The Game of Business: What Sets It Apart From Every Other Game?

In a Nutshell:

What makes the game of business distinct from other games? Historically, the game of business has been arguably about making money, bottom line. HuPerson perspective shift: business can be about the flow and ‘currency’ of life force, a distinction that makes space for a new way of doing business.

Daniel Goodenough and Jill Taylor explore the element of the game called ‘distinction’ (a ‘game’ is distinct from any other game because of something in particular) in relation to the ‘game’ of business, in this 5 min audio clip:

Are you clear about the game of business?

When we navigate across multiple domains at once in business – education, finance, health, public service, creative industries, lines can blur. The rules that govern one domain drift into another, and the distinctions that once felt solid start to soften.

In the midst of that, the game of business has a simple rule at its core. In traditional terms, this gets described as making money. The phrase carries weight for many people, and it often brings assumptions with it. When we peel those away, we see something essential. Every living system requires an inflow that sustains its existence. For a company, that inflow arrives as currency. Current. Movement. A flow that allows the business to remain alive.

The manner in which each business generates that flow varies widely. Some follow established practices. Some innovate their way into new arenas. Some rely on creativity. Some rely on efficiency. The strategies may diverge, although the principle remains consistent: if the life force no longer moves through, the business no longer remains in the game.

This is the distinction that often gets fuzzy. Not because leaders are unclear thinkers, rather because the weight of meaning, ethics, social responsibility, and human aspiration gets braided into the financial dimension. We see leaders finding meaning in service to family, in creative expression, in rising through an organization, or in shaping a visionary future. The meaning-making is human. The mechanics of staying in the game are structural. When these threads blur, the way we do business can get fuzzy.

What would it mean to be clear about this as a business person?

When we understand the game we are in, the way we participate becomes intentional rather than habitual. The game of business includes the requirement for life force to move through. It also includes the question of how that flow is generated – the values expressed in the process, the impact created downstream, the degree to which the business participates in a living ecosystem rather than extracting from it.

Leaders often engage multiple games at once: the game of business, the game of the marketplace, the game of marketing, the game of valuation, the game of culture-building, the game of social impact, and the game of personal meaning. Each of these brings its own distinctions. When the distinctions collapse into one another, decision-making becomes cloudy. When the distinctions are understood, leaders can align their energy, their teams, and their plans with far greater coherence.

In this time of metacrisis, clarity may be increasingly essential. Many enterprises have generated wealth in ways that deplete the wider environment. Many have prioritized speed, scale, and margins in ways that hide the true cost of “making more.” We now stand in a moment when business cannot isolate itself from the ecosystems it touches. Knowing the rules of the game, and the rules of its related games, creates space for different choices.

From a Game On Life Mission perspective, what would it mean to be clear from a place of empowerment?

When we look through the lens of Game On and life mission, the conversation opens further. There is the game of business, and there is the game each leader is playing within it. The inner game – meaning, contribution, vision, purpose – moves alongside the outer game of financial flow. These two layers are interdependent. When a leader knows the distinctions of the game they are in, they can bring the full signature of their life mission forward without distortion.

If a business is a living system, then the leader becomes a steward of its life force. They track the currents that sustain it. They make choices about the manner in which those currents move. They notice when flow stagnates. They shape the environment so that the business participates in a thriving ecosystem rather than an extractive one.

This shifts the question entirely. Instead of asking only “are we making money,” the inquiry becomes “how does life force move through this enterprise in a way that sustains the business, the people, and the larger world to which we are accountable.”

Game On leadership recognizes this era as one where the rules of business remain, while the context has transformed. The metacrisis calls leaders into new levels of discernment. Marketing becomes a cousin game that influences flow. Valuation becomes another cousin. Culture becomes a generative field. Each distinction becomes part of the whole picture.

When leaders are clearer about these distinctions, the way they create meaning in the game expands. Their life mission becomes an active force shaping how they play, how they lead, and how they contribute to the larger ecosystem of life.