There's no question our worlds are very complex. The challenges our customers face are complex. The challenges we face within our organizations are complex. The challenges in engaging our customers and trying to solve their problems are complex. Complexity is a reality!

We’re surrounded by, enmeshed in, and consumed by complexity. Sometimes, I think we revel in complexity, “Real men (and women) do complex stuff! It takes a tough man (or woman) to solve tough problems! Simplicity is for weenies!”

But then someone comes along and disrupts all of that. It’s a hot startup, someone with a new idea.  The world turns upside down.

Why didn’t we think of that?

It seems so simple, so obvious! We can do the same—usually followed by a rush of people copying, perhaps improving.

Sometimes, I think we use complexity as an excuse. Sometimes, I think we use it as a place to hide.  Other times, we make problems unsolvable, because of the complexity with which we address them. (The physicist in me says we are trying to solve for too many variables simultaneously.)

It’s easy to see how this happens, particularly in large organizations. We become enmeshed in the way we have always done things, legacy products, processes, tools, rules, methods, thinking, habits, attitudes, belief systems. We become prisoners of our own experiences–unable to escape them, letting them constrain the way we see things, approach things and solve problems.

It’s not so much that people in startups are so much smarter than us, it’s just they aren’t encumbered by all the baggage we carry with us.

They start from a much simpler place. A single idea. A question or point of view. A single problem they feel compelled to solve.

We don’t solve problems through complexity even though the problems may be very complex.  Complexity is not a friend to innovation or creativity. Complexity is the enemy of performance improvement.

Radical Simplification

I’ve been pushing the concept of Radical Simplification for some time. Radical simplification is neither simple nor easy. It requires great clarity, focus, and purposefulness. It requires us to address very complex and tough issues, but by removing complexities we may impose on the problem solving process. 

The process of simplifying may mean we have to change a lot of what we do–past habits, beliefs, attitudes, processes, and methods. They may prevent us from seeing what we could be seeing, they may be restricting our ability to improve. There may be some “sacred cows,” that restrain us.  “We’ve always done things this way.”

If you see yourself getting bogged down. If change and improvement is becoming glacially slow. If customers aren’t responding. If competitors are growing much faster. If you are spending more time in internal discussion, rather than with the customer, solving their problems, then maybe you are, unconsciously reveling in complexity or using it as an excuse.

Look outside–spend time in your customers shoes, look at it from their point of view. Or look at other organizations—not those in your industry or your competitors–they’re just as trapped as you. Look in another industry or market, not one that’s adjacent–one that’s very different. Look at how they address similar problems. Pay attention to someone who is asking the “stupid questions,”  they may see what you don’t. When you are tempted to respond, “You don’t understand….” realize that may they do and it’s you that doesn’t understand.

Complexity is just an excuse.

Dave Brock has spent his career developing high performance organizations. He has held executive roles in sales, marketing, and general management with IBM, Tektronix, and Keithley Instruments. He has been part of the founding teams for Pertinence, Sports Retail Partners, and several other Web 2.0 and Enterprise Analytics companies. His consulting clients include over 100 companies in the semiconductor, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, computer, telecommunications, retailing, internet, software, professional and financial services industries. These clients range from Fortune 25 to startup companies and include Microsoft, IBM, SAP, Oracle, Google/Motorola, and many others. Dave formed Partners In EXCELLENCE, taking a unique approach to providing consulting services.   He has honors degrees from the University of California at Berkeley with a BSME and from UCLA with an MBA. Tweet him at @davidabrock.

This post originally appeared on the Partners in Excellence blog.

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