Simply Effective: How to Cut Through Complexity in Your Organization and Get Things Done

The good news is that there is a way out of this complexity. "Simply Effective" is full of useful advice that teaches us how to get rid of complexity in our organization, and create one that's simple and effective.

The advantages are profound. Simple organizations have teams that are more engaged, that feel as if they're truly making a difference and not just spinning their wheels. Morale is higher, and so is productivity.

Simple organizations also waste far less time than their more complex counterparts. They're better able to deal with changing market conditions, and innovation is easier. Simple organizations are lean and mean, not clunky and slow.

In short, simple organizations have cut the clutter and fat to become effective.

Now, the author admits straight off that the tools and strategies he's included in the book are not new. Many readers, he says, will have heard about them before. What is new is how he's combined them to tackle different elements of complex organizations.

We respected the author for addressing this up front. He could have easily left this out. But by telling us how he's using these old tools in a new way, we know what to expect. And, we don't feel betrayed by seeing many of these common tools scattered throughout the book.

The author, Ron Ashkenas, brings plenty of experience to "Simply Effective." He's a managing partner of Robert H. Schaffer and Associates, where he consults with CEOs and senior executives on organization transformation and post-merger integration. He's worked with organizations such as General Electric and Johnson and Johnson on simplification strategies.

This book is written primarily for managers at any level, consultants, and advisors who want to make significant changes in their organizations. Whether you need to make your organization's application process easier to understand for recruits, or you need to reorganize an entire department to make it less clunky and more effective, you'll find useful tools and strategies to help get you started.

So, keep listening to find out why looking at your organization from your customer's perspective can make things simpler, why seeking perfection is not always helpful, and why a vague demand may be worse than no demand at all.

The book's structure is straightforward. The first chapter begins by defining what the author means by "simplicity," and why it's so important in today's organizations. Chapter two through five are the heart of the book. Here, we get a chapter on four key causes of complexity, plus in-depth analysis and tools for overcoming them. The last two chapters pull everything together and show how these tools can be combined into an integrated strategy for organizations.

Now, how did things get so complex? Some of it, the author says, is the result of globalization. But most of it is self-inflicted. We add products or features in one area of our organization without reducing products or features in another area. We build processes or projects with too many steps and too many decision makers. We give people vague assignments, we try to avoid conflict, and we often miscommunicate. All the while, the complexity keeps compounding.

The author has identified four main sources of organizational complexity.

The first is structural mitosis – borrowing the term "mitosis" from the world of science, where it refers to cell division. With structural mitosis, the author compares organizations to living organisms. They change, divide, and mutate. Managers add layers, reorganize, and consolidate. Every time this happens, complexity creeps in.

The second source of complexity is product and service proliferation. This is when companies add elements to their products and services, but do nothing to reduce the workload somewhere else.

The next source is process evolution. An organization's processes are really just a series of steps for getting things done. But, process flow often changes. Most of the time, managers don't spend time aligning processes to keep them simple. So, over time, processes can grow incredibly complex.

The last source of organizational complexity is managerial behavior. Managers create work, and because of this power, it's easy for them to create complex environments for their teams to work in. Vague assignments, open-ended deadlines, and additional projects added to a full workload all create complexity.

No matter where you work, chances are that at least one of these drivers of complexity will apply to you, which makes the book relevant for any manager or consultant. The author could have made the book more complex by adding more drivers, but thankfully he walked the walk here and kept things simple for readers.

If you're wondering which of these four apply to your organization, don't worry. The author gives us a very useful questionnaire at the end of chapter one that will help you identify the source of your organization's complexity. You can use this information throughout the book, to choose the tools and strategies that will work best for your situation.

So, now we know where our complexity is coming from, what do we actually do about it?

Well, that's what the rest of the book focuses on. Let's start by looking at our organization's structure, which is the first source of complexity.

Most organizations these days are hierarchical. The most power sits at the very top of the hierarchy, and there are layers upon layers the further down the ladder you go.

When it comes to simplifying the structure of an organization, there aren't any quick fixes. But, there are some really useful strategies for starting the change.

One of our favorite strategies is to start looking at your organization from your customer's perspective. How could you make it as easy as possible for your customers to do business with you?

The author gives us an example of his work with Chase Bank, to illustrate just how powerful this strategy can be. It's an enlightening story that will help readers see the changes that can result from simply changing your perspective.

Although this is a really helpful strategy, we were a bit disappointed that there weren't any other tips or "how-tos" here. The author poses the question, and then offers a few real-world examples, before moving on to the next strategy for structural change. We felt there could have been more information here.

In addition to discussing three other strategies for changing your organization's underlying structure, this chapter shows us how to avoid three complexity traps. One of these traps is when we focus on structure before strategy.

The author says that managers will reorganize a department's design in an effort to make sure that people always know who they're supposed to report to and what they're supposed to be doing. Most of the time, however, little or no thought is given to what this redesign is actually supposed to accomplish – other than establish the chain of command.

The next chapter covers product proliferation. This is when your organization has continually added products and services without streamlining or trimming along the way. This type of addition, without any subtraction, can cause organizations to become incredibly complex.

So, how can we simplify our products and services?

The author uses a great real-life example to illustrate how one major life insurance company simplified its policies. The strategies it used dramatically improved customer retention and profits.

For instance, the company completely rewrote their sales letters to customers. Before, the sales letters were confusing and full of industry jargon. They simplified the letters and put in real-life customer stories. Sales improved seven percent.

This life insurance company also made it easier for customers to actually get life insurance. Before, most customers had to sign their name at least eight times before they were sold the insurance. There were as many as 18 forms to fill out. The company reduced the number of questions by 50 percent, and reduced the signatures from eight to three.

Reading these real-world examples makes it easy for readers to see the type of changes they could make in their own organizations to start simplifying their product and service line. And thanks to the detailed information in this part of the book, we see that these efforts can pay off in higher profits, higher morale, and increased customer retention.

So what can you, as a manager, do to stop making things complex for your team? Well, this is covered in chapter five – and it's a chapter you really won't want to miss.

The author states that most managers don't willingly set out to create complexity for their teams. It's a subtle shift and, most of the time, managers don't even realize they're doing it.

One way managers cause complexity for their teams is by seeking out the perfect strategy. They spend countless hours reading reports, analyzing the competition, and looking at trends so they can create the very best strategy. Overdoing data collection and analysis, and avoiding action, can cause enormous complexity for your team.

Managers also add complexity when they commit one of the "seven deadly sins of demand making." We thought these were fresh and very informative, and they'll probably strike a chord with many readers.

One of these deadly sins is when managers back away from expectations. This happens when managers are uncomfortable making demands of their team. They backpedal away from the demand until it sounds more like a vague wish. This might sound like, "We really need to cut expenses, but, well, go ahead and do a regular budget this year. But I sure would like to see some reductions next year."

What started out as a demand backed off into a vague statement. When these pile up, teams begin to get confused about what's expected of them.

Another deadly sin of demand making is when managers take a see-saw approach with their team. This is like trading favors. Instead of a manager standing firm and telling her team that two goals must be achieved, she caves in and opts for an either-or approach.

There's a wonderful questionnaire in this chapter to help you assess how much complexity you're causing in your organization. Of all the chapters in the book, we thought this one had the most useful strategies and tips.

That said, our favorite chapter was the last one, titled Simplicity Starts With You. This is full of really useful strategies that all of us can start using today, to make things simpler. And the author states that simplification doesn't have to be hard and complex. We don't need to plan out a multi-year reorganization of our companies. Little things can make a big difference.

For instance, how often have you attended a meeting without an agenda or a clear set of objectives? Probably most of us have sat through plenty of these. And yet, did you do anything about it, or did you just grumble about the time you wasted?

Or, how often have you sat through a presentation that had a million slides and seemed to go on forever, and yet you didn't offer any feedback to the presenter?

We've probably all heard that if we're not part of the solution, we're part of the problem, and the author brings up this adage here, in the last chapter, because it perfectly applies to what he's talking about. Simplicity really does start with us. There are plenty of things we can do every day to spread simplicity. All we have to do is take the initiative.

The author suggests some really fresh ideas here. For instance, why not invite a customer to one of your team meetings? You could also have team members interview customers about what they think of the products or service. This discussion could open up new doors for change and simplicity.

So, what's our last word on "Simply Effective"?

We think it's a useful tool that managers and consultants can use to start simplifying their organizations. There are plenty of practical ideas and strategies here, and the author offers several new approaches to many tried-and-tested tools.

The anecdotes and company profiles are also valuable for showing readers the real-world application of some of these ideas. And, it's helpful to see how these changes can benefit a real organization, to spur growth and profits.

Our only complaint about the book was that it seemed a bit light in the first few chapters. For instance, the chapter on simplifying organizational structure could have used more tips and strategies. But as the book goes on, the content gets more in-depth, and readers won't be disappointed with what's in here.

We should also point out that "Simply Effective" is a book you'll want to sit down and spend some time with. The author did a fine job keeping the information easy to understand and concise, but it's definitely a book that's easier to grasp when read in longer stretches.

All in all, we think readers will find "Simply Effective" to be, well, simply effective.

Simply Effective, by Ron Ashkenas, is published by Harvard Business Press.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights.