Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

Leonardo de Vinci said these words some 500 years ago. The words of a visionary. Fast forward to?1960, the KISS principle – Keep It Simple, Silly (or Stupid, depending on the source) – states that most systems work best if they are kept simple. In other terms, unnecessary complexity must be avoided. This postulate resonates well with other famed quotes of Albert Einstein "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" or French writer Antoine de Saint-éxupery “It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”. We aim for simplicity in an increasingly Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world (VUCA, an acronym coined in 1987). As a society and as individuals, we face a constant challenge: to be able to simplify in a complex environment.

In recent history one can find examples of how simplicity has led to success stories. I recall that my first cell phone, back in the mid-90s, came with a thick booklet of instructions. Operating the phone – not yet smart – required some severe reading and testing. As technology advanced, phones became more intelligent but also simpler. Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs developed a phone with a revolutionary user interface that made an instructions booklet unnecessary. The user was able to operate the phone and simply test its functionalities. The customer valued the iPhone’s simplicity.

It is not surprising that the message displayed on the wall of Apple’s marketing department reads “Simplify, Simplify, Simplify…” with the first two words stroked through.

Project management is a discipline affected by the shift towards simplicity. An example of this can be seen in the evolution of the number of pages in one of the most used resources, the PMBoK (Project Management Body of Knowledge, from the Project Management Institute). From the 1st ed., released in 1996, until the 6th ed., released in 2017, the number of pages has steadily increased until reaching a staggering 978 pages for the 6th ed. The 7th and last edition to date, released in 2021, has knocked this figure down to 370. The decrease in the number of pages is a consequence of a shift towards simplicity and a focus on performance over processes; the 49 (!) processes in PMBoK 6th ed. have turned into 8 performance domains and 12 project management principles. It is a step in the good direction and opens up the door to further simplicity in the coming years.

Along these lines, I highly recommend the Project Management Handbook authored by Antonio Nieto-Rodríguez (Harvard Business Review), who can address project management from an outsider’s perspective in a pragmatic and hands-on manner. As he writes, a simple framework and a common language are key elements to the success of almost any endeavor.

Last but not least. Simplicity derives from a standard?that we all should have: common sense (Voltaire said that common sense is not so common!). Frequently, simple topics spiral towards complexity. Before we know it, complexity has increased like a snowball rolling down the hill. In these cases, applying a dose of unbiased fact-based common sense is often the first step in the right direction. Simplicity is not a silver bullet. But amid a bombardment of?dozens of methodologies and practices, it is important to ensure that something as valuable as common sense does not get overlooked.