Simplicity vs. complexity – choose!

Simplicity vs. complexity – choose!

Are you faced with complex business challenges? Do you find yourself solving them with even more complexity? Stop for a moment and think: perhaps the complexity is part of the problem and simplicity may actually be the solution.

Many years ago when I first started my profession as a Strategy Consultant, I was asked to facilitate the Strategic Plans for a number of Environmental Non-profit Organizations (ENGO). I soon discovered that these were groups of fishermen, farmers, community activists who were smart, committed, passionate about their cause but largely uneducated.

My challenge was to help them develop strategic plans that were acceptable to very sophisticated donors (e.g. World Bank, USAID, CIDA) whilst reflecting the true intentions of the ENGOs and being a tool that they could use to focus and guide their operations for future success and sustainability. It became clear to me that I had to take this seemingly complex idea of “strategy” and make it simple. Which I did. And then discovered that the simplicity was very useful and valued by my more educated clients including many with PhDs and Masters degrees).

Often, we think that issues that face us in our business must be complex. So we design, deliberately or by default, complex business processes with the intention to control but that end up frustrating our customers and employees. We are all familiar with our experience as a customer of being caught in some organizational maze where we cannot get our issue resolved due to convoluted processes and procedures.

And even when we meet an employee willing to help us, we sense their frustration in trying to help us get our issue resolved. Frustrating for all concerned. Except for the management who sits in an ivory tower satisfied that they have done their job of bringing order to the organization through “rigourous processes”. But have they? For what tends to happen with complexity is what I believe is a natural human orientation to find the easiest way, the shortcut. There go your processes Mr./Ms. Manager. And there goes your control – it’s all an illusion.

There is no virtue to complexity. What we need to do is to find a way to make it simple for our customers to partake of our products and services, and simple for our employees to deliver and delight them.

THE BALANCED SCORECARD

The Balanced Scorecard is simple. It is logical, clear and concise. Yet if you ask most people who use or have used the Balanced Scorecard, they are likely to tell you how complex it is.

It is not industry or company specific and can be applied to any type and size of organization. It forces us to identify the objectives, metrics and initiatives that are critical to our strategy. The 80/20 rule runs paramount when you are developing your BSC, as it forces you to think about your priorities and make trade-offs. In my experience the complexity comes not from the tool, but from our unwillingness to let go of what we have been doing even if it is not working. We see our letting go as a weakness, as an admission that we were wrong and did not know what we were doing. So we may take on the “new” strategy, but try to keep the old one running.

A Balanced Scorecard may typically have between 20 and 30 Strategic Objective over the 4 perspectives – Financial, Customer, Internal Process and Learning and Growth. When coming from a traditional Strategic Planning approach that identified a few major goals, monitoring all of the BSC objectives may see like too many. The temptation is to cherry-pick. Doing so may very well mean that you miss critical links in the cause and effect chain across the perspectives. Yes, you MUST focus on the entire BSC, at least until it becomes very clear to you through rigourous measurement and review, which are most critical to the strategy. A leap from 5 goals to 30 strategic objectives suggests complexity – it actually is not because it brings clarity.

Yes, the Balanced Scorecard is simple. But it is not easy. It requires a change in leadership mindset, total commitment to see it through (at least 2 years to really get it embedded in your organizational DNA) and a rigourous process of development, communication, review and adjustment. And when you have these elements, it’s a lot easier than you think it is. And well worth the effort in terms of the results.

TAKE ONE ACTION

Look at one process in your organization. Think about how you can make it easier for all those involved. Start with the desired outcome, including the quality of the experience you want your customers and employees to have. Are there steps that are redundant? Forms that are unnecessary? Indeed, is the process itself necessary? Push through your own resistance and question everything.

INTERESTING LINKS

Can you imagine a company with over 3,000 employees, no HR department, no written policies but that year over year grows rapidly and profitably? Ricardo Semler of SEMCO in Brazil has pushed the boundaries of management. Read this article and view the video about how he “runs” his company with some very radical ideas and practices.
– click to view article
– click to view video