Repair Log 006: Keep it simple

Simple

I read Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, and my favorite lesson out of it was Keeping things simple.

(Life changing, I know).

I used to overcomplicate things when I was younger. Especially when I was in charge. Thinking I was covering my bases but basically sabotaging myself and my team.

At this point in my career I can say i've learned my lesson, however I see how common it is with the younger leaders coming up.

This brief breakdown is meant to share how we can overcomplicate solutions, why it can cause problems, and how to adjust your thinking to help fix it.

This can apply to keeping things simple for yourself or for a team.

What we tend to do:

In an attempt to cover all our bases we come up with complex plans. However, these complex plans can lead to complex problems.

Think about it.

If we make a plan with a bunch of moving parts, now we have to track all of them.

Now you have try to anticipate a TON of stuff going wrong, instead of a few.

We want to solve a bunch of problems, but we end up possibly causing a lot more.

Why it’s problematic:

Ok now you have your complex plan, how are you going to communicate it to your team?

When we overcomplicate solutions/plans, we tend to overlook how that will affect task completion. Complicated plans can affect the team members understanding of what the objective is.

If the plan isn’t clear and concise, the team will break apart when things inevitably fail or other variables are thrown into the mix.

You inject more stress into the process.

Because instead of thinking about completing one task, you're now forced to think about completing 5 tasks with different variables for each. It takes up too much of your bandwidth in case you have to adjust for when things go wrong.

How to apply this to your personal productivity:

When brainstorming to come up with a plan to tackle a problem, break down the end goal into it’s most simple form. Just like in the drawing at the header of this post.

Don't complicate the end goal.

However, simple doesn't mean vague, the goal should be very specific so that you always know where you're headed.

What EXACTLY do I need to accomplish? Answering that question with a detailed goal will lead to your "how".

I applied this to my own work flow. For example, instead of:

"I need to publish a blog post" do this -> "I need to draft a outline for one lesson on 'insert topic here' so that I can move on to the next step."

You give yourself a much better starting point when you specify the end goal into its most basic level instead of having a complicated/ambiguious goal that can be accomplished many different ways.

You give yourself a better starting point when you have a simple step-by-step approach to your end-goal. When you have a broad and complicated first step you'll probably waste your time "learning" instead of making progress.

How to apply this in a team:

If applying to a team, you need to approach planning a little differently. Again, we will still keep it simple, clear and easy to understand. But now we have to make sure the plan is easy to understand for everyone involved (down to the lowest level).

Having experienced this firsthand, I can tell you that having an easy to understand plan allows for your team members/subordinates to take charge. They will know how to respond when a problem arises because they are aware of the outcome they need to achieve.

“And when things go wrong, and they inevitably do go wrong, complexity compounds issues that can spiral out of control into total disaster.” - Jocko Willink

To close this out, I can say that this principle has helped me as a leader. It has been crucial when trying to get a message across both to my supervision and my suboordinates. Especially in times where every second counts and you have limited time to get your point across.

Thank you for reading- OG