I LOVE this quote from Shigeo Shingo, author of The Shingo Model for Operational Excellence. I love it because it stops me in my tracks every time I find myself tempted to overcomplicate things, which is more often than I might like to admit. As humans, sometimes it’s hard to allow things to be as simple as they are.
What is simplicity?
Props to those of you who said, “Isn’t that the brand of sewing patterns my mom used to swear over when she was making my Halloween costumes?” Yes, in fact, you are correct! Simplicity patterns, as well as its counterparts, made sewing accessible for the modern woman who did not have easy access to ready-made clothing. If you’ve ever attempted to sew any of your own clothes, you can appreciate how intensely complicated that process can be.
Let’s dig into what the dictionary says:
- The quality or condition of being easy to understand or do.
- The quality or condition of being plain or uncomplicated in form or design.
- A thing that is plain or uncomplicated.
We might also say that simple things are clean. Easy. Don’t require excessive amounts of processing, thought, or effort. Simple things let the results shine without the noise of waste clamoring to be addressed.
So here we are with this idea that things that are easily understood, executed, or plain are actually more sophisticated than the greatest show of luxury and ornate decor you might imagine. Why is that? To me, it’s because simple things often demonstrate the best, most efficient use of time, energy, and care. There’s an unparalleled elegance in simplicity.
How do you incorporate this idea into your business? Well, you can literally start anywhere. For example, are you tired of unproductive meetings? Perhaps consider the structure. Is there an agenda? If not, create one with no more than three prompts. If there is an agenda, are people following it? Are they succinct? How can you encourage plain, direct language to move things forward instead of getting stuck in minutiae?
Another example might be time spent organizing your desk. If your desk explodes every week, is there a system you can put in place to make it easy for you to put things where they need to be over the course of the day so it’s easy to straighten at the end of each day rather than existing in dissolving chaos all week?
Activity: What’s the last thing you’re aware of overcomplicating? What made it difficult to simplify your thinking around it? Hint: If you’re having a hard time connecting with having overcomplicated something, describe a potential situation to yourself out loud. Does it sound confusing? It was probably overcomplicated.