The power of simplicity

This is one of those rare occaisions when instead of writing three newsletters, I only have to write one, because what I want to focus on this month applies to all three of my client bases. That’s so rare, that when the chance came, I couldn’t resist.

This past week has been wilder than normal. Not only has there been the work to do, two software packages that I use to do much of my work have presented me with major upgrades. I am sure that in time, I’ll get my head around all the changes, but in the meanwhile, a lot has changed and I am stumbling through my work instead of running like a well oiled machine.

I don’t envy software manufacturers. They are under constant pressure to add features and make changes. And yet, adding all those features adds complexity. What they do is what all of us do, we add things and patch and tinker and tack stuff on until at a certain point, what they have is an unweildy mess.  

And at a certain point, they have to decide, do I continue my patchwork path, or rethink the whole thing?

That same point comes to each of us, whether we are upgrading our technology infrastructure, adding new marketing initiatives, or growing as individuals. We patch and pile, add and tweak until we HAVE to find a more efficient way to work, a way to make what is very complex….. simpler.

The Benefits

Simplifying has a lot of benefits.

• Simplicity provides focus. And that focus helps us be more productive in what really matters. This is true whether we are moving our TV facility to a file based work flow, integrating our marketing, or building a better life.
• Simplicity makes us more productive. Yes, us gadget hounds in the TV/AV/IT world love being able to do everything, and marketing seems to be becoming more and more fragmented, but when we make what we do 95% of the time more complex to meet that 5% that doesn’t fit so well, we are not as effective 95% of the time. Study after study shows that simplicity makes us more effective in every aspect of work and life.
• Simplicity helps us make better decisions. This is because inherent in doing simplicity well is that we’ve already pre-prioritized what’s most important, less important, and what has little value. This has been verfied in industries as diverse as health care, manufacturing and personal coaching.
• Simplicity requires less maintenance – again, this truism crosses into technology, marketing and life.  Less maintenance means we can do more with less, or a lot more with the same, and just as importantly…..
• Simplicity reduces stress – and that makes life, work, technology, marketing and everyone, more creative, productive and just plain happy.

 The payoffs are enormous. Companies like Apple and Bose have build their whole product lines on simple quality. Amazon succeded where others failed because they made it easy. Companies that have simplified processes have saved millions, giving them a competitive edge in the marketplace. People who have simplified life and work create, innovate and produce more, and more happily than those who just keep piling things on in a web of complexity.

The Problem is....

The problem is, while BEING simple has all these benefits, actually simplifying is not as easy as most people think. Simplicity is not natural. It has to be concious or we just go on piling stuff on until we break. It has to be by design.

Designing simplicity takes discipline, and it takes an investment in time and thought before you see any results. And we want results now. That is why so many of us fail.

I spend a lot of time in all three of my main types of work simplifying. That’s not what people hire me for. They hire me to design TV systems, or to develop marketing campaigns, or to build better companies, ministries or lives. Each of these have a lot of particular skills involved to do them well, but the most important skill, and by far the most important thing I do, is simplify.

Hire me for my other skills and you will get results. I am a good consultant with a long list of world class projects in my resume. I produce quality marketing materials and have helped companies market well. I do good work. You get good value. But, hire me to go further and analyze what you do with an eye towards simplifying – be it a workflow study for TV/AV/IT or your entire marketing process, or your life and work, and the power of those individual skills is magnified several times.

Want more?

That is the power of simplicity more than it is the power of Quarry House - it gives you more and mutliplies your effectiveness on so many fronts. Whether you use me, or someone else, simplifying will make a profound difference in your effectiveness, in the quality and quantity of what you do, in your sales, in everything. I promise. 30 years of doing this has shown this to me again and again. 

Tom

PS – My whole business philosophy is that “Business is about promises made and promises kept. Everything else is fluff.” Just thought you should know