Keeping things simple is your business’s path to success.
That may seem counterintuitive, because as your business grows, your company becomes more complex. So it may be natural for you to assume that by employing more people, offering more products and reaching more customers, your business would need to be more complicated.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
Today I’m giving you a problem to consider. I’m asking for a little blind faith here – it will make sense by the end of this article. Here we go:
Look at the figure below. There is a simple reason A, E, F, H, and I are above the line and B, C, D, G, and J are below the line. Can you determine if K goes above or below the line?
Less Is More
While you ponder the problem, let me talk about organizations for a moment. Why do things become so complex in companies? Why does a one-page performance review become a 26-page inspection report? Why does a two-sentence dress code become a 15-page policy and procedure?
Because as our organizations grow, we believe complexity is the only way we can monitor and manage everything. If we make problems complex, we feel good about solving them.
In EOS®, you will hear every implementer worldwide repeatedly say “Less is more.” EOS is designed to help you simplify your entire organization – your communications, culture, facilities, structure, messages, and processes. As a Leadership Team, you must continually ask yourselves, “How did something so simple get so complex?” There is a simple solution to every problem if we are willing to be open-minded and look through a different lens.
Keeping Your Business Simple
Did you solve the problem I gave you earlier? Math won’t solve it, yet we are programmed as adults that all problems can be solved with numbers. A five year old can (and did) solve this problem because they are open-minded.
The answer: the K goes above the line. Why? Because the letters above the line are made up of only straight lines. The letters below the line are made up of curved lines.
Pretty simple when you think about it.
Keeping it simple is just one of the many nuggets of advice offered in the book Traction, by Gino Wickman. Traction thoroughly describes The Six Key Components ™ of your business, and provides you with simple yet powerful ways to gain more focus, growth and success in your company.
Download Chapter 1 of Traction to see how your business can grow while keeping it simple.
This article originally appeared on the Pure Direction blog.
