The Key to Success Always Resides in Simplicity

The world is big, complex, interwoven, and sometimes quite scary. If you are not careful you will get sucked in and life will get too complex. Your tasks will get too complex. Your systems will get too complex. 

Complexity makes execution more difficult. Additional steps cause additional opportunities for failure. 

So let’s take a look.

You find a ball on the floor. The ball needs to be returned to its proper spot. Now, you know the ball has a spot because a register was developed describing where all the toys are to be placed. Each item is described and a bin is allocated. The bins are numbered on a grid system. The top left bin is 11 and the first digit is the column with the second digit being the row. To put the ball away, you must find the register, locate the item description, read what bin is allocated to the ball. Then you count down and across to find the appropriate bin and place the ball in that bin.

This system works. Everything has a place and you can figure out where it goes.

Let’s look at another system.

You find a ball. Written on the ball is the words “Bin 5.” You go into the storage room and every bin is labelled in numerical order starting in the top left. You find bin 5 and place the ball in the bin.

Both systems will work and both have potential failure points but the second system is so much simpler. It has the minimal intermediary steps. The fewer steps results in fewer tasks and, as such, fewer opportunities to fail. In this case, these extra steps do not provide opportunities for greater success. They do not provide redundancy on critical or safety related tasks. They are simply redundant. 

Life gets complex. We do hard things. to increase your chances of success, try to be simple in your planning which will result in better execution.