Fanatical Simplicity...

Simplicity. This one word has the ability to make our lives less complicated, more efficient and enjoyable. But how many of us actually follow it? Not many. In our quest to be ‘sought after’ and ‘important’, we needlessly complicate things both in our personal and professional lives, creating endless confusion. 

In the corporate world, with the era of using jargon to communicate our knowledge and expertise coming to an end, most leaders and visionaries across industries are realising the importance of simplicity and are instructing their teams to present them with information or proposals that are clearly worded and unambiguous. This not only makes it easier to understand what is being said, but also makes it easier to make decisions.

Their argument for bringing simplicity back – given the dynamic and competitive nature of business, no one has the time or inclination to sit back and go through endless pages of jargon and unnecessary data to arrive at a conclusion which could easily have been made with more condensed, clear and concise information and communication.  Minimalism and simplicity have become a need and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that now, ‘less is the new more’.

The importance of simplicity is aptly illustrated with the instructions that Carlo Crocco, founder of Hublot Luxury watches, gave to people seeking funds from him. He asked them to answer just three questions in their proposal – Are you the first to market? Are you unique in your product offering? and, Are you different in your approach from the rest of the market? If the answer to all these questions was a simple one word – Yes, the business proposal got his complete support. Despite it being only three questions, all the information that is required to judge whether a business should be invested in is being provided.  

On similar lines, another trend that is visibly picking up is the requirement of a one page resume being put forth by many hiring managers. The belief behind this is that – putting a cap on the pages being used will do away with the window dressing candidates, and it will also compel candidates to only add that information which is relevant to the job that they are seeking. A less wordy resume gives more scope to ask questions and better judge the candidate.

So, like Carlo Crocco and these new age hiring managers, all of us aspiring to reach the top should try to increase the level of our understanding of the things that we deal with and learn to do away with the fluff that is usually added to hide our ignorance and promote self-importance. To gain the maximum benefit from our communication we should follow the one page rule and aim to simplify and compartmentalise the information that we wish to seek from and give to the people around us.

Ending with a quote by Leo Tolstoy that says it all in a single line - “There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.” 

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