Embedding
the simplicity
behaviours
into your
company
INTRODUCTION
In the last paper we identified the 6 behaviours that great simplifiers consistently exhibit
- focus, clarity, collaboration, courage, pragmatism and empowering. But the simplicity
behaviours will not become a reality in your organisation just by talking about them. These
new behaviours need to be embedded into your organisation’s day to day thinking and
actions. In this final leading simplicity paper we discuss some tangible ideas which will
start the process of embedding these new behaviours into your organisation.
By understanding the 6 simplicity behaviours, and what great looks like for each
behaviour, the job of a leader in the battle against complexity becomes a little clearer.
Across your organisation, wherever they are, your senior people need to visibly role
model these behaviours within their teams. Of course that is easier said than done;
merely understanding what these behaviours are and why they are important will not
automatically lead to any noticeable change. These behaviours need to be integrated
into your leadership development and measurement programmes.
HERE’S HOW YOU MIGHT GO ABOUT
DOING THAT:
Enable your leaders: Make sure all your leaders understand the critical role that their
behaviours play in creating complexity. Train them on the 6 simplicity behaviours. Show
them how they can be better leaders of simplicity, by living the simplicity behaviours day
to day. Make sure you keep this idea alive with your leaders day-to-day. Training is pointless
unless it is reinforced with regular follow up activities.
Leadership ideas exchange: People like to learn from each other’s experience. So after
the leading simplicity training divide your leadership teams into peer groups of roughly 10
leaders each. Ask them to connect with each other every month, to share their own leading
simplicity experiences and ideas. This creates peer pressure, because they have to report
back, but also allows people to learn from each other.
Build the Simplicity behaviours into your feedback & review processes: Clear, open
and timely feedback is essential if want to get better at something. Without feedback
people simply cannot improve. So give your leader’s regular feedback on how well they
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are leading simplicity, by making these behaviours part of your personal development and
review process. Build the 6 simplicity behaviours into your recruitment and job promotion
processes as well.
What gets measured gets done: Set each department/team leader a measurable
complexity reduction target for the year and link this to their remuneration. Bringing the
wallet into the equation focuses the mind!
Stay the course: If you stop talking about simplicity people will assume that it is no
vlonger an important issue, so you must keep the issue alive by regularly reminding people
of their duty to reduce complexity wherever it hides. When your leaders are talking to their
people, whatever the reason or subject, the importance of simplicity should always be
emphasised, even if it is just a quick reminder.
SOME ‘LEADING SIMPLICITY’ IDEAS YOU
CAN TRY
Overview: To start the behavioural shift, here are some ideas
that your leaders can try out over the next few weeks
Hopefully, by now your leaders will be saying, this theoretical stuff is great, but what do
you actually want me to do? What are the tangible ideas or actions we can take to bring
this thinking to life?
Here are a few practical ideas to get you going:
Love simplicity sessions: Ask your leaders to run ‘Love Simplicity’ workshops with their
direct reports, to discuss the power of simplicity and how you can reduce complexity. The
first session should focus on the following:
• Provide a clear understanding of what you are trying to achieve through simplicity
• Discuss why it’s important to the company, but also what’s in it for them personally e.g.
better work/life balance
• Provide some starter ideas showing how they can make things simpler
When you meet, don’t present or preach to them, instead engage in a 2 way discussion.
Tell them why you are passionate about complexity. Get them excited about the personal
benefits of making your organisation simpler. In other words when you are successful at
simplifying the organisation what’s in it for them personally? It could be better work/
life balance, more time to focus on the enjoyable and valuable aspects of work, less
frustration and treacle! People only commit to change if there is a personal benefit
from the change, so discussing the personal benefits of simplicity is crucial. Help your
team to understand the behavioural dimension of complexity and share the simplicity
behaviours. Discuss how you can all start to live the simplicity behaviours day to day.
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Priorities reset: By their own admission the majority of organisations/teams are trying
to do too many things, and failing to deliver on the big opportunities as a result. With
simplicity ‘less is more’. So take time out to reset your company/team’s list of priorities.
What are the biggest opportunities? How much capacity do you have to deliver your new
projects/initiatives? How much resource is needed to successfully deliver each major
opportunity/project? Now put all your resources behind your biggest opportunities. Where
you have projects with good returns, but no capacity, right now, simply put them ‘on hold’
until your top priority projects are done. Ruthlessly kill any projects that have low returns.
Challenge complexity or ‘stop’ days: Set aside a day to get the whole team thinking about
simplicity and identifying opportunities to reduce complexity. Ask them to identify 3 things
that could immediately be stopped, without causing any real harm to the business. Then
decisively stop doing the things your team have recommended. Implement email and
meeting free Fridays.
Simplicity awards scheme and spot prizes: Set up a recognition programme to reward
teams and individuals who have successfully made something simpler. A pat on the back
makes people feel 10 feet tall, but it also sends a strong signal to everyone else, that
simplicity is really very important to you, not just another token initiative.
Communicate and inspire: Make sure your leadership team continues to talk about
simplicity day to day. If you stop talking about simplicity people will assume it is no longer
a priority. Once they see you are serious about complexity reduction, they quickly start
helping you. Regularly communicate new simplicity ideas, share successes from other
teams and remind them why simplicity will make their lives better.
SUMMARY
• Behaviour change is critical if you want to sustainably reduce complexity in your
organisation; you can’t win unless you change your culture to embrace simplicity as
a daily mind-set and way of working.
• In any organisation your leaders are the most powerful force for behavioural change,
so you must use them as the primary weapon in your battle against complexity.
• Great leaders make things simple and keep things simple, so their people do not get
lost or confused.
• By using the 6 simplicity behaviours your leaders can bring simplicity to life as a daily value
within their teams, and keep simplicity alive by challenging complexity wherever they
see it.
• This behavioural model needs to be strongly embedded into your leadership
development and measurement programme so that simplicity does not become
just another management fad or religion of the month. Simplicity must become a
permanent feature of your organisation.
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SIMPLICITY IS JUST HOW WE DO
THINGS AROUND HERE!
In an organisation where simplicity part of
your culture, creating simpler things, doing
things in the simplest way and removing
harmful complexity is the ‘default’ setting
for the majority of your people all the
time. If something new is created it will
be designed with simplicity in mind, if
complexity can be removed it immediately
becomes a priority to do so. People don’t
need to be reminded that simplicity is
the best way, because that’s so obvious
they’ll laugh at you for mentioning it. When
simpler is just how things are always done,
you can say with conviction ‘we have a
culture of simplicity in our organisation’.
About the author: Melvin Jay is Founder and CEO of Simplicity Consulting. He has 30 years of commercial
and consulting experience. The first 15 years of his working life were spent battling complexity in blue
chip companies like Danone and Novartis. As a leading expert in simplicity he now works with the world’s
biggest companies to help them reduce complexity. He spends all day everyday thinking about simplicity
and helping his clients reduce complexity. He is passionate about the role that leadership plays in
creating culture and changing mind-sets in large organisations, and regularly coaches senior executives
on how to lead simplicity. He co-authored the bestselling and award winning book ‘From Complexity to
Simplicity’ with Professor Simon Collinson.
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