TOOL #10: SIMPLICITY
Systems Question:
"How can we go from complexity to simplicity and from consistency to flexibility in the solutions we devise?"
Flexibility, looseness, adaptiveness, speed, and KISS (simplicity) concepts are much more important today in the 21st Century than rigid plans, tight controls, one-size-fits-all consistently, and economies of scale.
We need to eliminate the waste of complexity, bureaucracy, hierarchy, and extra levels in every system. Bureaucracy has run amuck in our lives and can be very harmful.
Principle:
—Make it Your Goal to: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify!
Systems upon systems are too complex to fully understand and manage centrally, so we must constantly strive to simplify our lives and work.
In understanding the complexities of systems, liberation from regulation and the formation of smaller units is generally more efficient for corporate bureaucracies, privatization, and free market economies than government or big business can ever be.
It is the thousands and thousands of little decisions we all make daily in our businesses that shape and meet these market needs—not central government regulations. Clearly, government has a role to play in today's society, just not an all-encompassing one! The same is true for big corporations.
We need to eliminate the waste that complexity brings. The KISS method is more powerful than many economies of scale.
Focus on the fundamentals, not the fads. In the future, the virtual corporation may very well be more effective than the more traditional, vertically-integrated, complex organization.
Three Magic Questions to Build in Simplicity!
1. What kind of simplicity sleuth team should be set up?
2. What are the abrasive or problem areas in the organization or my personal life that should be examined?
3. If you could change the organization or your life with a “stroke of the pen,” what would you do?
Examples:
Rule of 3
Four leaf clovers are a rarity and, many believe, good luck. The world mostly operates from the “Rule of Three”—beginning, middle, end; sun, moon, stars; body, mind, spirit; air, land, water. In fact, this method of reducing and seeing the world in three is the key to the KISS Method (Keep It Simple, Sweetheart).
–If someone makes a decision in your life that affects you but doesn’t make sense to you, ask the person the rationale for their decision. Then, ask them again, “Is there any other reason?” Ask it a third time to get at the real reason he/she have this view.
–When you are about to make a major decision in your life or your work, stop and “troubleshoot” the decision prior to implementing it. For example, ask who it might impact, positively or negatively. Then check with that person about it.
TOOL #10 SUMMARY:
1. When giving a talk or a presentation—in fact, whenever you are trying to influence someone—reduce your views to three main points. Everyone will remember them more easily.
2. When someone else is being complex or rambling on, ask them for their three main points or responses.
3. Ask people to analyze any situation with their three pro points and three con points on an issue.
4. Let’s also make a rule that anything we can’t explain in three minutes or three sentences is too complex.
5. Summarize an issue or solution on one piece of paper.
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