The Art of Simplification

These days, I give advice to companies as a way of making a living. One of the best, and simplest pieces of advice I can give is to simplify.

As someone who loves ideas, enjoys discovery, experimentation and debate I actually enjoy complexity, connection and lateral thoughts that seem to pop up continually in my brain. But I have learnt the hard way that I need to calm down, especially when working with or leading others. When I bounded into work with an idea I had had in the shower that morning, my team rolled their eyes. They had enough work on already without another new initiative.

As someone once said to me – when the leader spits, it is experienced as waterfall lower down.

There is a reason why the Mirror and the Sun exist. Their headlines powerfully convey just one idea. Lenin saw it too, in the call for a mass line rather than detailed propaganda tracts. Powerful ideas are memorable and simple. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Always look on the bright side. Cliches maybe, but they distill human experience into a slogan or catchphrase. I had a phrase I leaned from a great manager – which speaks to the need to simplify – boil it down! (“like the proverbial spinach” he would add).

Even for companies, simple slogans can work beautifully – Just Do It. Naughty but nice. We try harder.

So if you have a hard job, or a big project, write your longwinded, stream of consciousness report. Then rewrite it from the point of view of the reader/listener. Read it out loud and reduce it until it becomes much sharper and clearer. Then ruthlessly edit it, then precis it, then get someone else to do the same. At the end you might only have three sentences. Make them into bullet points, ideally in a catchy and memorable way. My best Chairman ever – @Paul Hodgkinson used to say “Product, People, Profit”. It helped me focus on the most important aspects of my job. @Dan Golding of NASA simplified the 1979 $3bn Mars Pathfinder mission: 1. Land safely on Mars 2. Deploy a robot 3. Do good science. Respect.

Simplification of messages is vital to unite people around a single, clear vision, task or project. But simplification of process is worthwhile too. You can save a lot of time and money if you get a taste for stripping out unnecessary detail, steps and functions.