The unintended consequence of progress
I recently experienced a moment that perfectly encapsulates the central challenge of modern life and work: the Simplexity Paradox.
We assume that innovation inherently equals simplicity. Yet, I found myself standing before a magnificent, modern water dispenser - a piece of impressive design(Black one). To get a simple glass of water, however, I had to stop and read the instructions. I had to cycle through various modes - Normal, chilled, sparkling, boiling - and perform a specific safety double-tap "circus" to get hot water. Fetching water, a simple function, had become a complex activity
The same complexity hit me when I looked at an innovative new timepiece. While a classic watch provides immediate, simple information, this modern design required me to "train my brain" just to check the time. Both the tap and the watch are the finest innovations, standing out in the crowd.
While appreciating the innovation, the reality is that the quest for "taking innovation to the next level" is making our core actions unnecessarily complex. If this happens with basic functions, what is it doing to our complex projects?
Living Difficult
My mind started racing towards the complex world we are living in. Our living is also getting difficult. While technology and automation were supposed to be making our lives easy and simple, we must pause and observe if they truly are.
In my coaching work, nothing is easy. We are focused on getting customer and business requirements to life as soon as possible, but we are facing relentless process friction:
Feature Release: Each feature release cycle often takes over two months. Bureaucracy by Fear: We implement rigid, standard rules across our integrated systems because we had a problem at some point in time. The Documentation Overload: We call our methods "agile delivery," but our teams are often busy building diligent documentation.
- Feature Release: Each feature release cycle often takes over two months.
- Bureaucracy by Fear: We implement rigid, standard rules across our integrated systems because we had a problem at some point in time.
- The Documentation Overload: We call our methods "agile delivery," but our teams are often busy building diligent documentation.
Are we moving in the right direction, or are we completely off track? Our systems are built for continuous development and delivery, but we’re slowing ourselves down with unnecessary layers of complexity.
The call for Simplexity
The real innovation we need is not more features, but more clarity. We need to apply the Simplexity principle to our core functions:
Prioritise Utility over Novelty: For fetching water at the office, we don't need innovation that requires us to read instructions; we need reliability and speed. We need projects to be delivered on time. Ensure Simplicity in Use: To check the time, it has to be simple; we shouldn't have to assume what the time is. Our project processes must be equally simple to execute. Demand Simplifying Innovation: We need innovation that will make our lives simpler from complex challenges, not innovation that introduces new layers of complexity.
- Prioritise Utility over Novelty: For fetching water at the office, we don't need innovation that requires us to read instructions; we need reliability and speed. We need projects to be delivered on time.
- Ensure Simplicity in Use: To check the time, it has to be simple; we shouldn't have to assume what the time is. Our project processes must be equally simple to execute.
- Demand Simplifying Innovation: We need innovation that will make our lives simpler from complex challenges, not innovation that introduces new layers of complexity.
We must recognise when our drive to innovate shifts from solving a problem to creating a new form of cognitive difficulty. The true innovation lies in achieving a complex result through a simple, elegant mechanism.
What layer of unnecessary complexity are you ready to remove from your projects today?
