“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” ~Steve Jobs. This is great advice from a legendary CEO. This quote gets to the root of many problems. It is easy to make a problem complex. Look for people who are able to make a problem simple.
Here are two more quotes by legendary CEOs talking about simplicity:
- “Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.” ~Elon Musk
- “The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.” ~Warren Buffett
When I read the Elon Musk quote above it makes me think of the way phone apps are created. For most of us if you can’t quickly use an app without much explanation many of us don’t want it. The world is changing and moving in this direction. If people need a manual to work a product they would rather go to the next product. This reminds me of a quote an engineer told me a long time ago. Water follows the path of least resistance and so do engineers. I was trying to get the engineers to use a tool that needed a lot of explanation. Although at the time I thought the engineer was being sarcastic it turned out great advice that has stayed with me. If a product is easy to use and makes things easier for a person they are going to use it. For those trying to improve efficiencies in the business this is an important point to remember.
This is a quote often used when talking about simplicity. “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself?” Just because you can explain it to a six year old doesn’t mean that is the way you would explain it to a room full of people. If I were to explain supply chain to a six year old would ask them what is their favorite toy. I would then say supply chain is what makes it possible so that we can go to the store and that toy is available to buy. From this point you can get into much further detail.
