Complexity is the enemy of execution

People love to introduce complexity for no reason. 

Especially when they’re insecure about their ideas and abilities. After all, complexly feels like progress and gives people a sense of power and importance. 

What’s not to like? 

And so, I completely understand where they’re coming from. Simplicity is hard. It requires more energy, more brainpower and more courage that complexity. Think about it. The last time you generated an incredibly simple idea and decided to share it with others, didn’t you feel naked? Didn’t you feel vulnerable to people’s questions and skepticisms and rejections? 

No wonder complexity is so attractive. 

However, if we have any intention of ratcheting up our species to a new level of understanding and effectiveness, we have a responsibility to fight this urge. To constantly ask ourselves, will this course of action simplify or complicate our lives? 

A useful habit to get into is attempting to draw out each of our ideas on paper. This process automatically shows up the idea’s weaknesses and complexities. And often times, doing so will show us what’s overly complicated and superfluous about our thinking and lead us to a simple and obvious solution. 

Nike’s current president made a great point on the topic. He said a blank page serves as an extended playing field for the brain, allowing people to revise and improve on creative thoughts and ideas. 

In fact, when clients rent my brain for coaching, mentoring and consulting projects, I always sketch out their ideas with a tool called a thinkmap. It’s strategic framework that helps my clients boil down complex systems to a bare and highly memorable minimum. And every time I start drawing one, I can literally feel the complexity melting away. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What tool might help you let go of some complexity?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “11 Things to Stop Wasting Your Time On,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter. 

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2015-2016.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of The Nametag Guy in action here!