Complexity is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as “involving a lot of different parts, in a way that is difficult to understand.” As professional people we deal as a matter of course with complex subject matter. An ability to master an intricate set of facts and analyse them to produce a coherent conclusion is very much a requirement of our profession. When we give a presentation we want to make sure our audience understands the minutiae of our subject matter. We put our heart out there with complex PowerPoint slides and copious notes. This however means it is easy to overcomplicate an opinion, diagnosis or presentation which, whilst it may be professionally satisfying, misses a critical point. Beauty as they say is in the eye of the beholder, who is the person we are seeking to engage and explain the topic to in a way they can take on board.
The chief executive or finance director of your client will be a busy person. They will not be interested or have the time to digest complex legal rationale. They will generally want to know if they can or cannot take a course of action, and if they do what the risk is. I recall the head of legal at a company I worked for explaining to the board of directors the papers they were approving for a complex bond issue – the first in the service industry. I was working for him on this and had helped go through and resolve a myriad of issues. The documentation was extensive and complex. Yet my boss simplified all of this in plain language all could understand and assimilate in 10 minutes so they appreciated what they were committing the company to.
We obtained the required approval and had to fly to Luxembourg for the completion for tax reasons. I was charged with organising the trip, but had to go to my boss to explain we could not get the flights we wanted for the whole team. He looked up for a moment from the documents he was perusing and solved my seemingly complex problem very simply – “hire a jet” he said, and I did just that!
A prerequisite of avoiding complexity is a true in depth understanding in the first place. Those with the greatest ability to communicate simply are often accomplished professionals who fully comprehend their subject matter – and yet are humble enough to recognise how much they still have to learn. My Tai Chi instructor confesses that after 35 years he is still learning about this soft martial art. As a result, he can relate to and explain complex moves in a way beginners like me can understand. He like my former boss is a true expert.
As professional people we are inherently good at what we do and therein lies some of the problem. See this article Why People Over-Complicate What They’re Good At observing “People enjoy others marvelling at their level of proficiency in a certain domain.” Because of this: “There is a tendency for them to over-complicate their description of what they do whilst teaching others how to do it.”
It seems that we suffer from “complexity bias” - our tendency to believe that complex solutions are better than simple ones. This is not new: see this article in The New Scientist Occam’s Razor which “is a principle often attributed to 14th century friar William of Ockham that says that if you have two competing ideas to explain the same phenomenon, you should prefer the simpler one.”
In fact, as this short blog says We Overcomplicate the Things We Don’t understand. Comments like “What we need is a more detailed plan, so we are all on the same page.” can actually reveal a lack of understanding. Over complexity is a particular challenge in the design of IT systems. See this article The Rise and Fall of Overcomplicated Systemsobserving that “Old Mercedes 280E cars from the 80s still straggle along in deepest darkest Africa because they’re easy to repair using simple and standard parts unlike many of today’s modern cars.” It has some good advice including:
“Why design a system which only the elitist few can understand?”
“When deadlines are critical, building a complicated solution is extremely risky.”
“The clearer a project’s purpose and outcome, the easier it is to keep the system focused and simple.”
I have experienced this in practice in IT some years ago when we developed an all singing and dancing contracts management system – the only problem was nobody wanted to use it because it was just too complex.
See this Forbes article Current Technology Only Manages To Complicate Things observing that “Instead of making life simpler, technology has made it more complicated.” and “The biggest wastes of time, money and resources for an enterprise come from complex systems. If you’ve ever been a part of a project that involved large-scale data integration, you know exactly what a massive problem it is. And it’s a problem that isn’t going away with current solutions.”
I also like this Harvard Business Review article How to Stop Overthinking Everything which says “Deliberation is an admirable and essential leadership quality that undoubtedly produces better outcomes. But there comes a point in decision making where helpful contemplation turns into overthinking.” It advocates amongst other things that you:
“In fact, research shows that pairing intuition with analytical thinking helps you make better, faster, and more accurate decisions and gives you more confidence in your choices than relying on intellect alone. In one study, car buyers who used only careful analysis were ultimately happy with their purchases about a quarter of the time. Meanwhile, those who made intuitive purchases were happy 60 percent of the time.”
Winston Churchill said “Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge”.
While Richard Branson observed “Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.”
And Confucius in 500 B.C. was quoted as saying, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
The chief executive or finance director of your client will be a busy person. They will not be interested or have the time to digest complex legal rationale. They will generally want to know if they can or cannot take a course of action, and if they do what the risk is. I recall the head of legal at a company I worked for explaining to the board of directors the papers they were approving for a complex bond issue – the first in the service industry. I was working for him on this and had helped go through and resolve a myriad of issues. The documentation was extensive and complex. Yet my boss simplified all of this in plain language all could understand and assimilate in 10 minutes so they appreciated what they were committing the company to.
We obtained the required approval and had to fly to Luxembourg for the completion for tax reasons. I was charged with organising the trip, but had to go to my boss to explain we could not get the flights we wanted for the whole team. He looked up for a moment from the documents he was perusing and solved my seemingly complex problem very simply – “hire a jet” he said, and I did just that!
A prerequisite of avoiding complexity is a true in depth understanding in the first place. Those with the greatest ability to communicate simply are often accomplished professionals who fully comprehend their subject matter – and yet are humble enough to recognise how much they still have to learn. My Tai Chi instructor confesses that after 35 years he is still learning about this soft martial art. As a result, he can relate to and explain complex moves in a way beginners like me can understand. He like my former boss is a true expert.
As professional people we are inherently good at what we do and therein lies some of the problem. See this article Why People Over-Complicate What They’re Good At observing “People enjoy others marvelling at their level of proficiency in a certain domain.” Because of this: “There is a tendency for them to over-complicate their description of what they do whilst teaching others how to do it.”
It seems that we suffer from “complexity bias” - our tendency to believe that complex solutions are better than simple ones. This is not new: see this article in The New Scientist Occam’s Razor which “is a principle often attributed to 14th century friar William of Ockham that says that if you have two competing ideas to explain the same phenomenon, you should prefer the simpler one.”
In fact, as this short blog says We Overcomplicate the Things We Don’t understand. Comments like “What we need is a more detailed plan, so we are all on the same page.” can actually reveal a lack of understanding. Over complexity is a particular challenge in the design of IT systems. See this article The Rise and Fall of Overcomplicated Systemsobserving that “Old Mercedes 280E cars from the 80s still straggle along in deepest darkest Africa because they’re easy to repair using simple and standard parts unlike many of today’s modern cars.” It has some good advice including:
“Why design a system which only the elitist few can understand?”
“When deadlines are critical, building a complicated solution is extremely risky.”
“The clearer a project’s purpose and outcome, the easier it is to keep the system focused and simple.”
I have experienced this in practice in IT some years ago when we developed an all singing and dancing contracts management system – the only problem was nobody wanted to use it because it was just too complex.
See this Forbes article Current Technology Only Manages To Complicate Things observing that “Instead of making life simpler, technology has made it more complicated.” and “The biggest wastes of time, money and resources for an enterprise come from complex systems. If you’ve ever been a part of a project that involved large-scale data integration, you know exactly what a massive problem it is. And it’s a problem that isn’t going away with current solutions.”
I also like this Harvard Business Review article How to Stop Overthinking Everything which says “Deliberation is an admirable and essential leadership quality that undoubtedly produces better outcomes. But there comes a point in decision making where helpful contemplation turns into overthinking.” It advocates amongst other things that you:
- Put aside perfectionism
- Right size the problem
- Leverage the underestimated power of intuition
“In fact, research shows that pairing intuition with analytical thinking helps you make better, faster, and more accurate decisions and gives you more confidence in your choices than relying on intellect alone. In one study, car buyers who used only careful analysis were ultimately happy with their purchases about a quarter of the time. Meanwhile, those who made intuitive purchases were happy 60 percent of the time.”
Winston Churchill said “Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge”.
While Richard Branson observed “Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.”
And Confucius in 500 B.C. was quoted as saying, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
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