How to Work Simpler, Not Harder: a New Take on an Old Concept

Why work smarter, not harder needs an update

Work smarter, not harder. 

We've all heard it, and are probably so accustomed to hearing this phrase that we simply tune it out. 

What exactly does it mean, in practice, to work smarter and not harder? If you asked ten different people you would get ten different answers. Better time management? Use more digital tools? Prioritize more effectively? Sure! These all sound good, but the reality is we jump from one idea to the next in the never ending saga of attempting to somehow work smarter.

The problem is, too many people, including me, don’t know how to put working smarter into practice and often fail to realize any meaningful return on their “working smarter” investment.

It’s time to start working simpler, not smarter.

Work simpler, not harder

There are three things you can do today to address increasing complexity and disorder in your business by working simpler:   

 1.      Define your values. As simple this sounds, you need to have a perfectly clear understanding of your personal and professional values, and how these values align with the value proposition for your customers.

 2.      Adopt the rule of three. You can’t do it all. No surprises here. To maximize your effort and generate value where it counts, pick three things on which to focus.

 3.      Seek simplicity. Continually ask yourself, am I solving this problem or doing this task in the simplest way possible? If not, change how you’re doing it. 

We need only to consider the origin of the work smarter not harder message, and the benefits of attacking increasing complexity and disorder in business with simplicity, to know that simpler solutions yield better results.

 Mogy’s message

The concept of working smarter not harder is generally attributed to Allen Mogensen, an industrial engineer who, in the 1930’s founded Work Simplification: the organized application of common sense.

Mogy (as he was affectionately known) developed a human-centric approach to simplifying work tasks to drive improvements in productivity and efficiency. In his view, those doing the job were in the best position to make improvements, and therefore were directly engaged in simplifying their tasks. 

His approach to working smarter was grounded in simplification and was a direct response to ever increasing industrial complexity and by association, disorder. 

Business entropy: the downside of success

As organizations become more complex, disorder and chaos is not far behind. This is known as business entropy (derived from the second law of thermodynamics). Fortunately, business is not governed by the laws of physics and the best way to counter the inevitability of business entropy is with the pursuit of simplicity. 

Consider how new start-ups or established businesses deal with this predicament.

Start-ups tend to be highly disordered. This is expected and necessary. They’re starting from a point of high uncertainty and high business entropy. With any new business, being nimble and keeping things simple are critical to survival. 

But the pull toward complexity is incredibly strong – new systems, processes, jobs, tools, and buildings are all necessary to help the business grow. To keep disorder at bay, leaders must spend a considerable amount of their time, through sheer determination, positivity, and grit, managing the rise of complexity. 

It means that leaders must drive for simple solutions, and address the frustrations of their team as soon as they arise.

For established businesses, the predicament can be even worse. The leaders of these businesses often don’t realize just how complex their business has become. Change is usually incremental and additive and it’s very easy for layer upon layer of complexity to be added before the leader realizes that it’s too late to simplify.

That’s why for established businesses, leaders must pursue simplicity though continuous improvement to flush out and eliminate unnecessary complexity.

So there you have it. Mogy’s message is as true today as it was 90 years ago: work simplification is key. By incorporating this approach, you can stem the tide of business entropy and work simpler, not harder.

Now put it into practice!

 I appreciate the time you took out of your day to read this! You can find more articles like this from me on my Driving Great Results blog and learn more about how I can help you drive great results though simplicity at Sheppard & Company. For news and insights and to see what I do when I’m not working, follow me on Facebook @ljsheppar.

References

“Rediscover Work Simplification.” 2020. Worksimp.Com. 2020. https://www.worksimp.com/articles/rediscover%20work%20simplification.htm.