RELIABLE SIMPLICITY

This is a chapter from my latest book, The Fisherman’s Path to Leadership: 224 Lessons from the Wisdom of Nature

Learning how to tie strong knots is a fishing basic. Mastery is in how to tie fewer knots. It took me a while to imprint this firmly into my fishing and leadership practice.

I began thinking about this after a good few of my first trips and losing fish for a seemingly strange reason. Once, a decent, but not large salmon took my fly, and after a few minutes of resistance, the fish broke the line almost effortlessly. I reeled back the remaining line finding that it was snapped on or very near the knot.

My first reaction was to blame the line. This was the easiest. I checked the line for strength pulling it with all my power – it held perfectly well. So, something was wrong with what I did.

Some experienced fishermen solved my problem. My mistake was simple – every knot weakens the line. The nylon fishing line loses about 50% of its strength on every knot, and the modern fluorocarbon line weakens by about 15% on every knot. Tackle is torn at the knots.

Indigenous peoples of the Arctic manage to catch salmon with a tin can. Don’t laugh. They simply wind the fishing line around the jar and tie a heavy lure. ?The lure is thrown by hand, and that empty jar serves as a reel. Everything is brilliantly simple. Three simple elements – fishing line, lure, tin can, and just one knot to tie the lure. Believe me or not – this works perfectly well.

Simplicity means reliability. Every knot makes my tackle weaker and more complicated and less effective.

Another similar mistake that I realized when I once again was taming a tangled fishing line, getting angrier by the moment. Solving puzzles because of my tendency to make things complicated wasn’t my plan. I paid the price for complicating things again.

Simplicity is the religion of the fisherman. Make simplicity sophisticated. In fishing, every complication makes the distance between a fisherman and a caught fish greater.

Every element of my tackle must be reliable and serve its purpose. Every part must be excellent in its functionality. Every hook must be razor sharp, and lines straight without tangles and knots. In other words, a blind hook means an empty bag.

In business, every complication makes execution difficult and the distance between a company and customers greater, thus questioning success in the marketplace.

Leadership demands disciplined simplicity. A vision is not a vision unless it’s understood. Simplicity lets people believe in the vision. If the vision is complicated most people will ignore it. Therefore, even a vision’s physical form must be simple. Vision operates and makes execution possible from its simplicity.

The simpler the vision in its core meaning, the easier it can be shared with employees, customers, and partners, and thus it’s easier to scale inside and outside an organization. The simplicity of a vision allows it to be shared easily with and between employees, from employees to customers, and among customers.

Complication is the enemy of great vision. If things are too complicated and too difficult to grasp, then most likely this is not a real vision but an overcomplicated puzzle. No one can solve complex problems for people without attracting supporters and developing empathy on a big scale if the vision is too complicated. Too much complexity simply turns people off.

Simple is always better, yet simple is often more difficult. We are often taught to make every process more complicated. We were never taught how to make things simple, which is necessary for leadership.

?LESSONS LEARNED:

?? ?Simplicity is a virtue of reliability.

?? ?If people can’t understand it easily, then they can’t pursue it or achieve it. If you can explain it to a ten-year-old with a handful of words and they understand, then your vision is simple enough.

?? ?Professionals tend to present complex ideas in simple words. Pretenders tend to use technical language to justify themselves, not ideas.

?? ?Simplicity connects vision with people and makes vision achievable. Complication makes vision dysfunctional and unachievable.

? ?Simplicity makes people productive in achieving their goals. Complication makes people busy solving problems that are created by it. A true leader must be a master of simplicity.

Read The Fisherman’s Path to Leadership and share your experience!

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