The Danger of "Keep it Simple Stupid"
The Risk of Over Simplification
Whenever something is unnecessarily complex, like a business with too many products or layers, managers think of the saying: Keep it Simple Stupid and its acronym: KISS. In an increasingly complex world, the best managers know how to cope with complexity not live in denial. This popular slogan creates the false impression that simplicity and complexity are black and white categories rather than two ends of a continuum. The truth is that oversimplification is just as dangerous as overcomplication.
The Benefits of Avoiding Excessive Complexity
Naturally managers want to avoid being more complex than necessary. Slow decision making can create a condition described well by another popular saying “paralysis by analysis” where you analyze a problem to death and can’t make a decision. Lack of momentum is a motivation killer. The 80-20 rule suggests acting with 80% certainty rather than wait for 100%. Because you get 80% of our return from 20% of your effort, you should identify the 20% that makes the biggest difference and forget about the other 80%. This is sensible simplicity.
Fear of being wrong is one of the main drivers of excessive complexity. Responsible managers want to cover all the bases, be absolutely sure they have thought of everything. Their fear of failure prevents them from making a clear commitment. People who fear accountability need somewhere to hide so they blame others or seek refuge in certainty, an impossible goal. Success in business requires an entrepreneurial spirit, which means taking risks. Risk takers do not need certainty. They stick their neck out on a strong hunch and a few facts.
The Dangers of Oversimplification
Most people love simple slogans and recipes, quick success formulas. There’s no doubt that complexity is anxiety producing. A simple formula is like an anxiety reducing drug. It takes the pressure off to think harder. You can relax and just go for it – to use another dangerously simple slogan. Feeling that you know the answer restores the confidence that was destroyed by the uncertainty bred of excessive complexity.
But oversimplification creates unrealistic dreams that lead, almost inevitably, to failure if the situation is indeed more complex than we want to believe. The truth is that our solution must match, to a fair degree at least, the complexity of the problem. You really need a middle way between the two extremes of KISS and excessive complication.
Examples of Overly Simplistic Ideas
In business, organizational democracy sounds like a good idea. Who can argue against democracy? Is it not true that managers should be participative, that they should involve employees in making decisions, that engagement fosters ownership, commitment and motivation? True enough, but take a close look at what democracy really means. A business can never be a real democracy because it is owned by shareholders. A democracy is a way of organizing designed to serve the members of a group, but organizations that are owned by shareholders can’t serve its employees as that would violate the rights of the owners. See http://businessmanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/organizational_democracy. The same argument holds against another simplistic idea: servant leadership. See http://businessmanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_servant_leadership
Simple ideas like organizational democracy and servant leadership have enormous appeal but don’t hold water if you look at them closely. The love of simple recipes leads businesses to leap from one fad to another. Eileen Shapiro has argued forcefully against fad culture of modern business in a couple of books: How Corporate Truths Become Corporate Traps and Fad Surfing in the Boardroom: Managing in the Age of Instant Answers.
Simplistic Thinking for Personal Success
The best example of excessive simplicity offered by personal success gurus is that you can achieve anything you want if you simply believe you can. Of course, thinking positively is a necessary condition of success, but it is not sufficient. It’s just not that simple. Yes, there are hundreds of stories of seemingly impossible, instant successes. But most successful people have worked hard consistently for years to get to where they are. Tiger Woods started playing golf almost as soon as he could walk and he had his father constantly pushing him. The truth is that there are a number of keys to success and the same ones won’t work for everybody but there is no doubt that belief alone won’t get you very far.
Balancing Simplicity and Complexity
Sorry, but there is no simple formula to help you get this balance right. However, if you suspect that an idea might be excessively simple, brainstorm with others what the risks or downside might be of adopting the idea. Also, if you believe that you are making things too complex, ask yourself how you can simplify your idea without missing some important factors that you can’t afford to overlook.
