One of the reflections I have heard over and over in my years of business and political consulting is, “It just shouldn’t be this hard.” It is true. Norman Vincent Peale may have said it best: “We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities.”
Chasing the complex at the expense of the simple has become standard operating procedure in many organizations and government entities. It seems to be human nature for people to waste countless hours pursuing, exploring, evaluating, recreating and ultimately discarding complex solutions to problems or opportunities when a simple solution could have done the job.
The last thing the world needs is another blue-ribbon committee to take something simple and transform it into something complex. Often it gets so complicated it becomes unactionable. There are countless “committee findings,” reports and recommendations stuffed in drawers.
While it is true that thinking “outside the box” is an important skill for the 21st century, it is also true that in many instances the solution is “inside the box.” Some entrepreneurial-minded individuals almost wear their relentless pursuit of “out of the box” solutions as a badge of honor.
In some cases “out of the box” thinking becomes a form of procrastination or avoidance. Many individuals and groups end up waiting for their big-idea solution to play out while their competitors have found simple solutions that actually work for the customer. What they fail to recognize is that in some things a simple, good enough solution is good enough, and spending additional time on it is not productive.
Many individuals and groups end up waiting for their big-idea solution to play out while their competitors have found simple solutions that actually work for the customer.
Political parties and government agencies seem to have a natural inclination toward complexity instead of simplicity. The platforms of the two major political parties are more than 30,000 words each. I have never known a Democrat or a Republican elected official who spent time reading or making decisions based on those platforms.
Platforms — like everything else in politics — tend to grow over time, taking on a density and dimension that tends to distance the authors from the only audience that matters — the American people. It is interesting that Abraham Lincoln ran on a platform that was a single page and contained less than 1,200 words.
I have told politicians on both sides of the aisle to simplify. Paraphrasing James Madison (because Hamilton is getting way too much attention these days), I would say it will be of little avail to the party or to the American people … if the platform, bill, campaign or message be so voluminous that it cannot be read, or so prescriptive that it cannot be understood. Our principles provide us power, but our zeal to have an all-encompassing document makes us weak. Powerful principles, expressed in brevity, provide boldness and clarity.
The same pursuit of complexities occurs in our personal lives as well. How often do we make things too hard by overanalyzing or by chasing a “silver bullet” answer for a wide array of issues from relationship challenges to household organization and everything in between? Chasing the complex at the expense of the simple often keeps us hacking on the branches of life’s issues instead of focusing on the root of the issues.
A good rule of thumb is to think “outside the box” only after you have explored “inside the box.” You must also assess the importance of the project or opportunity and the true value of various solutions.
Are you chasing complexities at the expense of simplicities?
Evaluate how you are spending your time and how often you are chasing complexities versus simplicities. And even more important, are you chasing complexities at the expense of simplicities?
There is an appropriate time for chasing complexities and a time for chasing simplicities — the challenge is to make sure, whatever you are choosing to chase, that you are doing it by choice and not by chance.