The Power of Simplicity

Marissa Mayer lives with that conundrum every day. As Google's director of consumer Web products, she's responsible for the search site's look and feel. Marissa is a blond 30-year-old with two Stanford degrees in computer science and an infectious laugh. She's also Google's high priestess of simplicity, defending the home page against all who would clutter it up. "I'm the gatekeeper," she says cheerfully. "I have to say no to a lot of people."The technology that powers Google's search engine is, of course, anything but simple. In a fraction of a second, the software solves an equation of more than 500 million variables to rank 8 billion Web pages by importance. But the actual experience of those fancy algorithms is something that would satisfy a Shaker: a clean, white home page, typically featuring no more than 30 lean words; a cheery, six-character, primary-colored logo; and a capacious search box. It couldn't be friendlier or easier to use. Here is how Marissa thinks about the tension between complexity of function and simplicity of design: "Google has the functionality of a really complicated Swiss Army knife, but the home page is our way of approaching it closed. It's simple, it's elegant, you can slip it in your pocket, but it's got the great doodad when you need it. A lot of our competitors are like a Swiss Army knife open – and that can be intimidating and occasionally harmful."

Business is not complex. It’s just because there are too many people that make it complex. The way to fight complexity is to use simplicity. The future belongs to simple oriented people because only by simplicity things get done. Only simplicity works. Simplicity has a big power. By simplifying a complex issue, you are making it easy for people to make a decision without too much thought. What obvious to you is obvious to many. That’s why an obvious answer works so well. In other words, you are seeing things as they really are. Complexity is not to be admired but it’s to be avoided because complex language can cloud people’s minds.

Einstein spent years with three different collaborators to make his theory of relativity accessible to the layman. What could be more simple than E = mc2?
What could be simpler than the idea of unconscious, subconscious, and conscious, organized into “es, über ich, and ich?”
What could be more elegant than Adam Smith’s pin factory and “invisible hand”?

You must be learning to simplify a complex world into a simple organizing idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything. It doesn’t matter how complex the world, we can reduce all challenges and dilemmas to simple - indeed almost simplistic – ideas and anything that does not somehow relate to this simple organizing idea holds no relevance. See what is essential and ignore the rest. The essence of profound insight is simplicity.

These management phrases that are described as „memo from hell“ by Fortune magazine circulate at Fortune 500 companies:

· Added value is the key exponentially accelerating profit curves. (simple: Let’s grow sales and profits by offering more of what customers want.)
· We need to dimensionalize this management initiative. (simple: Let’s all make a plan.)
· We utilize a concert of cross-functional expertise. (simple: People from different departments talk to each other.)

We sense that business people feel that by using these pompous words they will look as smart, complicated, and significant as possible. But all it really does is make them unintelligible.

Abraham Lincoln said, “You must draw on language, logic and simple common sense to determine essential issues and establish a concrete course of action. I determined to be so clear that no honest man could misunderstood me and no dishonest one could successfully misinterpret me.”

His strength lay in explaining complex ideas accurately and clearly. He advised William Herndon: “Don’t shoot to high – aim lower and the common people will understand you. They are the ones you want to reach – at least they are the ones you ought to reach. The educated and refined people will understand you any way. If you aim too high your ideas will go over the head of the masses, and only hit those who need no hitting.”

Lincoln deliberately chose illustrations and words that ordinary people could understand. After he became President, he decided to use the word “sugar coated” in one of his official statements. The public printer respectfully suggested that the President choose a more refined expression. Lincoln replied: “That term express precisely my idea, and I am not going to change it.”

He carefully studied and thought out the best way of saying everything as well as the substance of what he should say. This meant taking into account who his audience was and how much they could understand. His rejection of what it called fine writing was as deliberate because he felt that he was speaking on a substance which must be made clear to the lowest intellect. As communicator he liberally utilized stories and anecdotes, colloquial expression, symbols, and imaginary in order to influence and persuade his audience.

You can win the fight against fog of the mind by clear writing:
· Keep sentences short.
· Pick the simple words over the complex words.
· Choose the familiar words.
· Avoid unnecessary words.
· Use terms your readers can picture.
· Write to express, not to impress.

You have to encourage simple, direct language and ban business buzzwords not only in writing but also in talking.

Jack Welch, the highly successful chairman of General Electric, put it well when he said, “Insecure managers create complexity. They worry that if they are simple, people will think they’re simple minded. In reality, of course, it’s just reverse. Clear, tough-minded people are the most simple. Real leaders don’t need clutter. People must have the self-confidence to be clear, precise, to be sure that every person in their organization – highest to lowest – understands what the organization is trying to achieve.

Meeting and presentation that aren’t simple and to the point are a waste of time and money. Little will be communicated as people simply dial out. You have to be intolerant of intellectual arrogance. You should never let a confusing word or concept go unchallenged. Tell the presenters to translate their complex term into simple language. Never be afraid to say, “I don’t get it.”

Don’t be suspicious of your first impression. Your first impressions are often the most accurate. Don’t fight the feeling of looking foolish. In some ways the most naïve-sounding questions can turn out to be most profound.

Knowledge is power, which is why people who had it in the past often tried to make a secret of it. In post-capitalism, power comes from transmitting information to make it productive, not from hiding it behind complex words.

TIME magazine commentary on a Stephen Covey’s book, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ that has been sold 10 millions copies, capture this complexity phenomenon: “His genius is for complicating the obvious, and as a results his books are graphically chaotic without which his books would deflate like a blown tire.” So many people bought his books because they were impressed of the complexity of his books.

People admire complexity even though they don’t understand it. Remember, whatever we’re aware or not, we are all victims of suggestion through the never ending suggestive thoughts that come to us from all sides, in many cases almost to the point of being hypnotized. A mass hypnosis is seen around us in every human activity.

Henri Deterding, general director of Royal Dutch Oil said, “Whatever I have met a business proposition which, after taking thought, I could not reduce to simplicity, I have left it alone.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.”

Have courage. Cut the nonsense! When you pursue simplicity you are on the side of the world leading thinkers. I believe simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best for the body and the mind.


Information Age

Too much information can confuse you. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. Peter Drucker, the most profound Management Guru says, “Computers may have done more harm than good to managers by making them focused more on the world inside. Executives are so enchanted by their internal data that computer generates. They have neither the mind nor the time for the outside. Yet results are only on the outside. I find more and more executives less and less well informed about the outside world.”

Our beleaguered executives are armed with personal technologies that busy people lug around: two-way pager, portable printer, etc. Does all these inconsequential details make the executive more productive? More efficient? You are kidding!

President Eisenhower said, “I do not believe that any individual, whether he is running General Motors or the United States of America, can do the best job just by sitting at a desk and putting his face in a bunch of papers. Actually, the President ought to be trying to keep his mind free of inconsequential details, so that he can make clear and better judgments.”

As Forbes magazine wrote, “The secret of Jack Welch success is not a series of brilliant insights or bold gambles but an attention to the right things.” His management mantras are pretty simple. It’s all about doing the right things – not the fashionable things.

First, you tell your people that you believe in being number one or two in a field. If not, they run the risk of being sold.

Next, it was the boundaryless shares of ideas; a process that breaks down corporate hierarchies to make sure that information flows up and down.

He’s also pushing a defect-reduction program called Six-Sigma. The goal is to reduce defects to the point where errors are almost nonexistent. The benefits are happy customers and big cost saving.

Did Jack Welch need cell phone, notebook computer, two-way pager, and portable printer to get the ideas above? He does need communication tools (phone, cell phone, or email) and note computer to run his company but not many inconsequential details and paper works.

The first challenge to making the life more simple is to acknowledge that YOU CAN’T ABSORB EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU NEED TO KNOW. Cancel or get rid of what is only marginal. Ask yourself, “What is worth knowing and why?” Clear the desk from the unimportant stuff. If you unclutter your mind, you will think more clearly.

Use you mind wisely. The story is told that the greatest scientist. Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile. Einstein’s replay, “I don’t know.” Why should I fill my brain with the fact that I can find easily in any standard reference book?” (Today using Internet it’s much easier to find any facts). Einstein taught us a big lesson. He felt it was more important to think than to use the mind as a warehouse.