Business is easy. We make it complicated

"OMG that's it. Business is actually really easy. It's people who make it complicated."

This was me recently having one of those shower moments that make you shout out loud to the bathroom walls.

How on earth could I make such a provocative claim? When the business environment – internally and externally, seems to be getting more and more complex? Yes, the context in which business operates have more elements, and therefore it can get more confusing, but the fundamentals of business run on a small number of fixed, knowable rules. You address a market problem through a product or service, and you deliver that with a combination of resources (people, time, money). That's it.

Simple, but not easy. Why?

The doing - the compliance – is what's hard. When the numbers don't tell you what you'd hoped, that's uncomfortable. When that happens, we get in our heads and create stories and excuses for the sole purpose of avoiding the obvious.

Here are 2 common examples that you will likely recognise:

1. the strategy deck that cost 6-figures in offsite costs, facilitator, fancy dinners and hotel rooms...that sits in a drawer that nobody implements.

2. the meeting that exists to pontificate and adjudicate the decision not to make a decision.

These examples don't make business hard, they simply illustrate how clarity gets dodged. That 'dodging' is what creates a complexity tax – a concept I shared with you a few months ago, when I asked 'if you deleted the bottom 10% would your overhead drop, or would your team just finally breathe?'.

So what?

If business is simple, what does that tell you about problems that feel persistent or even systemic?

I think it indicates that there's a lot noise, and it signals that someone, somewhere, is avoiding taking action based on what the math already shows.

Think about where, in your business, a decision has been 'in progress' for 2 quarters. What might you be avoiding?

This is hard to see for yourself, but think about what it could be costing you to wait one more day.

I'm going to show you how next week.