The Coordination Game
Weekly insights on the invisible games governing trust, alignment, and collective action.
Published every Monday • 5–7 minute read • 28 readers
Most systems don't fail because people stop trying.
They fail because people keep trying to win the wrong game.
Every human system—teams, companies, communities, institutions—operates inside a game, whether anyone names it or not.
This newsletter helps you see the game before it forces a reckoning.
Each week, The Coordination Game explores:
- →What game is actually being played
- →Where coordination is quietly degrading
- →Which signals matter more than the scoreboard
- →How systems break—or transform—before it becomes obvious
This isn't about hot takes or predictions.
It's about pattern recognition under uncertainty.
Trust Is Not a Feeling. It's a Resource
Systems don't collapse when trust drops—they collapse when trust is consumed faster than it's regenerated.
When the Scoreboard Lies
By the time a scoreboard updates, the underlying system has often already shifted. That gap is where coordination failures are born.
The Game You're Already Playing
Learning to notice when the game shifts—personally or collectively—is a skill. That skill can be practiced.
I'm Leo Guinan. I make online games observable.
After analyzing 100+ podcasts, newsletters, and creator businesses, I've identified the patterns that cause coordination to break before performance does.
The Coordination Game newsletter is part of MetaSPN—a network making invisible games visible through diagnostics, workshops, and frameworks.
Currently offering:
- –Creator Game Audit Workshop (live diagnostic)
- –The Game of Programming (teaching CS through games)
- –The Coordination Game (this newsletter)