Simplicity

You can’t have 5 North Stars;?You can’t have 5 most important goals…and you cannot catch 5 tennis balls.?It’s about discarding a lot of great insights in order to let the?most important insight shine.

(Prof. Damian Hughes)

What does Simplicity mean?

• Sending short, simple and super clear?information.
• Weeding out ideas that may be really important?but just aren’t the most important.
• Finding the core of the idea you want to?communicate.
• Stripping an idea down to its most critical?essence.
• Finding simplicity within complexity.

You can find simplicity in the mottos driving some of the world's biggest institutions. For example:

• German football club, FC Bayern Munich goes with "More Than 1-0"
• The famous Waldorf Astoria hotel is guided by "Creating Customers For Life"
• Reputable airline, South West Airlines sees itself as the one that's "Democratizing The Skies"

Please note: What makes great leaders is basically the simplicity of their message.?The great Italian World Cup-winning coach, Marcelo Lippi, once said that "When we ask ourselves questions in simple terms, we often receive a simple answer too." Therefore, it is fair to assume that the power in simplicity is fundamental to building a winning culture.?

Why is it important for leaders to embrace Simplicity?

• We live in a period of unprecedented information/data overflow. A frentic atmosphere of data.
• A single weekly edition of the New York Times contains more information than what the average person in the 17th century was likely to come across in their entire lifetime.?
• The total amount of communication which an employee receives in a 3-month working period is 2-3 million words or numbers.
• Unfortunately, studies show we can’t hold more than 7 separate pieces of information in our minds at once (telephone numbers were originally 7 digits long).
• As leaders, to help our team members deal with?this increasingly frentic atmosphere, the very?first step we need to take to create a winning?mindset/culture is this: BE SIMPLE. (Prof. Damian Hughes)

How then do you go about being simple as a leader? Here are a few rules you can live by.

• The 5-Second Rule: Your?message must get across?in 5 seconds- Trevor?Beattie
• The Inverted Pyramid Rule: Your main message must always be at the top. The first sentence contains the lead (just like newspaper headlines).
• The Tennis Ball Rule: Great coaching is not about how many balls you can throw, it is understanding how many your team can catch.
• The T-Shirt Rule: ?If?you can’t emblazon?what you stand for?across a T-shirt, it is?probably too?complicated.

To wrap up my take on the topic, here's a good quote from Prof. Damian Hughes, whose work has been referenced in this article.

Information travels around the brain like electricity around a circuit. It takes the path of least resistance. The simpler you make your argument, and the more clearly you present your case, the faster and more powerfully that information flows.?

Conclusion

Did you know that 85% of working adults cannot tell you their organizational goals? (Chris Mchesney)