“Stop getting in your own way”. That was the heading of one section of a presentation I gave to a client, after the internal and external research phases of our project. It was probably the central finding. And although this was the first time I said it, it’s a theme I’ve seen re-emerge countless times.
Over the last thirty years, I’ve come to believe that organisations rarely underperform because they lack intelligence or effort. More often, they create unnecessary complexity.
Growth brings pressure. Everyone wants more: more products, more markets, more systems, more reporting, more meetings, more layers. The world becomes more complicated. But the least effective response is to make the organisation more complicated as well.
One client CEO told me “Complexity adds cost” as we began a project together. And he was right, but complexity isn’t just expensive. It’s distracting. It diverts attention away from customers and towards managing the organisation itself. Decisions slow down, and priorities compete, often meaning that standards drift. The organisation begins serving its own purposes instead of its customers.
The strongest organisations aren’t necessarily the biggest, the smartest or the best funded. They’re the ones that resist unnecessary complexity. They stay clear about what matters; they align performance, culture and reputation around that purpose, and make it easier for good things to happen. They make things simple, they make themselves coherent.
The brutal truth is that complexity is inevitable. But complication is a choice.