Simplicity is Leadership

I love getting my shoes shined.  Well, my boots.  I don’t really own traditional shoes.

James was his name and he was a marksman of his craft.  He could turn the scuffs into reflections.  His stand at the Calgary, Alberta airport was spotless and he took pride in his work.  He didn’t say much.  When he did, he spoke.

It was only after a 30 minute conference call (I didn’t realize he was listening) where he spoke.  “Why didn’t you just tell the people to only focus on things that matter?”

Clearly my long-winded rant over the phone annoyed him.  Even though I thought I outlined a pretty compelling message – after thinking about it, I was annoyed with myself.

James was a good man.  Probably still is.

An entire industry has been built around emulating great leaders.

Much like the story of Napolean and his raids through the Napoleanic Wars of the early 1800s.  His success is often paired with his communications style of explicit, simple and literal commands during battle.  It is said that his communication was whittled down to the pure basics where the lowest level corporal could understand and even repeat it back verbatim.

To Napolean, simplicity in communication is vital; reduce it to the elemental.

One of the most strategic and valuable skill in leadership is the ability to lead with simplicity.  I’m still not great at it.  I’m still getting it.

Those that choose to be in it.  You know.  Leadership is hard.  And now, more than ever before, the levels of complexity and uncertainty are ratcheted.  It is VUCA (you can look it up).

I believe the companies and individuals that will outperform their peers will be directly correlated to the those that simplifiy their strategy to the great sources of value.  They simplified the organization to better execute the strategy. And they took responsibility for communicating key strategic and tactical messages in simple, clear, compelling ways that inspired changes in behavior and impelled action.

SIMPLIFY STRATEGY

Developing a strategy that works is consistently focused on the things that really matter (like James said).

Leaders who help form these strategies are willing to back off even good ideas for the sake of simplicity and focus. Like master gardeners, they recognized that careful pruning would ultimately yield stronger, more sustained results.

In 1997, Steve Jobs said, “I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying “no” to 1,000 things.” But he also succeeded in consistently simplifying the strategy into memorable themes.

Although I’m tired of the typical Apple reference – Apple is predicated on bringing the best user experience to its customers.

That’s not far from the message of its first product brochure: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

In other words, when it comes to strategy, be prepared to say “no” unequivocally and to say, “yes” memorably.

SIMPLIFY THE ORGANIZATION

Organizations can falter when activities require a lot of interactions and interdependencies. Every organization has tension or rub points.  Those areas of complexity where different functions have to interact well for the organization to succeed.

I suspect some leaders have a nose for those tension points. Some have learned to let others do the heavy lifting by asking them simple questions such as, “What’s getting in your way?” and “What would make it easier for you to do your job?”

People will tell you where the complexity is.  They are dying to tell you!  Especially when they understand how their role impacts the strategy.  Guess what, they are still dying to tell you what’s wrong.  We must listen.

A hallmark of the simplified organization is clarity around decision-making.  In my experience, this has failed every time.  And I was certainly a part of the failure.

An agile organization must have clear “line of sight” to the end goal.  More importantly the ability to make judgement and decisions to move forward – whether in the boardroom, manufacturing or at the point of sale.

Another hallmark is to clear success measures for everyone’s work.  What if job descriptions were distilled down to only the success measures.  More specifically, what people are here to achieve.  Too many organizations define roles by a long list of activities that are to be carried out.

It is far more powerful to define roles by their success measures and their role in key decision-making around the factors that matter to the organization’s strategy.

SIMPLIFY COMMUNICATION

Developing strategy is tough and often painful.

Of course, people often love the retreats and nice “off-location” working sessions.  However, the bi-product is often a huge laundry list of comprehensive initiatives (I always feel so bad for the one person transcribing on that large Excel spreadsheet!) that become incomprehensible to the stakeholders for whom it matters most.

The magic is to break up any strategy into simple terms that have specific relevance to each group. Explain how each role is linked to the strategy.  Regularly ask questions to measure employees’ understanding.  Clarify any misunderstandings.

Closing the gap between strategy and execution is about having sustained motivation.

Have a clear, simple Purpose.

Bring relevance and connection to everyone.  Everyone.

Create Small Simple Steps.  Actions that are so small and achievable that you cannot fail.  It is not about advancing monthly initiatives.  It is about what can we do TODAY that will move us (even slightly) towards our destination?  Our flag on the horizon.

In short, as the world becomes more complex, simplifying strategy, inter-dependencies, decision-making and all communication becomes more important than ever.

This is much easier said than done.  I’ve rarely seen it.

I tipped James and thanked him for his wisdom.  I suspect he is still changing lives today – one shoe (or boot) at a time.

James can do it.  So can I.  So can You.