CHAPTER 7 - PROTOCOL 5

Infinite Game Coaching

TIME45-60 minutes plus return cycle

OWNERLeader with coach, supervisor, or trusted colleague

ARTIFACTDual-horizon coaching record + leadership experiment

SUCCESS CRITERIA

The immediate demand and enduring purpose are both explicit.
The conversation surfaces assumptions, tradeoffs, and effects on long-term capability and trust.
The leader chooses one bounded action that serves both horizons.
Evidence, support, and a return conversation are scheduled.

IMPLEMENTATION STEPS

Frame both horizons

Describe the immediate decision, deadline, constraints, and the longer-term condition or capability the work must protect.

Interrogate the current game

Examine the measures, incentives, narratives, habits, and pressures influencing the leader’s preferred response.

Generate aligned choices

Develop options that meet the finite responsibility while strengthening learning, ownership, trust, or system capacity.

Commit and return

Choose one action, define support and evidence for both horizons, and set the next coaching decision date.

WORKING ORGANIZER

Run the protocol.

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01Frame both horizonsDescribe the immediate decision, deadline, constraints, and the longer-term condition or capability the work must protect.What must be addressed now, and what must still be true later?02Interrogate the current gameExamine the measures, incentives, narratives, habits, and pressures influencing the leader’s preferred response.What is this situation rewarding, and what might that cause us to neglect?03Generate aligned choicesDevelop options that meet the finite responsibility while strengthening learning, ownership, trust, or system capacity.Which response solves today’s problem without creating tomorrow’s dependency?04Commit and returnChoose one action, define support and evidence for both horizons, and set the next coaching decision date.What will you test, what will you notice, and when will you decide again?

Evidence to bring backReturn date

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REFLECTION PROMPTS

Which pressure is narrowing my field of view?
What capability should be stronger because of this decision?
Whose trust or experience must be part of the evidence?

EQUITY GUARDRAILS

Coaching does not replace required legal, safety, personnel, or accountability action.
Do not romanticize endurance or ask people to absorb unsustainable conditions for a future promise.
Protect confidentiality and include the perspectives of people affected by the decision.