The world of business is complex. But what separates the wannabes from the truly great is that the wannabes compound their complexity, while the truly great simplify it. A couple of examples:
Steve Jobs was a master of simplicity. And this is confirmed once again in an interview with John Sculley who was CEO of Apple for a decade and worked side-by-side with Jobs for a couple of those years.
Sculley describes Jobs as “a minimalist and constantly reducing things to their simplest level. It’s not simplistic. It’s simplified. Steve simplifies complexity.”
In the same vein, A. G. Lafley, who transformed Procter & Gamble from a dowdy producer of everyday products to a 21st Century powerhouse, operated with the reigning principle: “Keep things Sesame Street simple.”
Of course, this begs the question: “why do most of us compound our complexity?” The reason is because it’s the easy way out. Complexity is seductive. It is addictive. It is our way of not dealing with reality. It is how we remain active and busy and
What we don’t realize is that simplifying complexity is the
And the reason so many among us don’t realize this is because not only have we never really tried it, we have no clue where to begin.
With the world of business becoming exponentially complex, simplifying complexity is now a prerequisite. Welcome to the world of Skills 2.0.
Aman
(Aman Motwane)
Thanx for this. Great presenation, btw, Monday in New Jersey. Can see why you had SRO attendance. I remember you also had a slide with da Vinci quote: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Yes.