John Caswell

Simples.

You have your wits about you. You keep your eyes open. You must be alert if you want to survive. You wouldn’t rush headlong onto black ice – careering over it in slippers would you? Nor would you speed up as you entered a blind bend in the wet. Well unless you wanted to come unstuck. You would wear the right equipment, you would alter your approach accordingly, aiming to stay in some kind of control correct?

Pimples.

There is a famous truth that the surest way to end up with a $1 Million is to start with $1 Billion. Wicked and clever deceptions are many along the slippery path to rid you of your careless decisions. Countless villains, cut-throat pirates – deep traps in the forest floor.

These lessons are all there for us to learn from but we seem to think that they won’t happen to us. We seem to expect to carry on doing things we know we do and yet expect a different outcome. Or more elegantly - "If we keep on doing what we’ve always done we will always get what we always got"

So you may reasonably think that to get a simple answer to something then you ought to start with a simple question. Well that’s a start but that’s also wickedly deceptive. Don’t expect a simple answer if you live in a complex world. The slippery path is just as complex. The pitfalls and dragons are still present.

Business is a complex world and I wish I had a $1 for everybody that demands simplicity when creating meaningful strategy or sustainable change. The simple questions and the simple answers are there for sure but get yourself equipped for the slippery path. You can’t avoid it so get with it. Learn to like things that are slippery, master how to glide through the constantly changing dynamics.

Complexity is a funny concept but not in a humorous way. 

I’m almost always working with intricate business challenges. They are important questions hitherto merely surfed upon by busy seniors in large enterprises.

I hear interested by-passers, other people in the business (but new to the panoramic walls we have been worked hard on for a few days) say to me upon entering the room that while it looks incredible isn’t it all a bit complex? My answer is a light-hearted - “Well if you think this looks complex, try not doing it”

I am being serious though.

Prior to us creating this wall of debate and decision can you imagine the wicked ball of string? The differing and contentious thoughts of these earnest protagonists hanging like pregnant bats from the white hot rocks of an erupting volcano.

Imagine the leadership not collaborating – not figuring out the gazillion dynamics affecting every business challenge. And worse not doing it in a way that wrestled the damn thing to the ground with some sense of smartness, rigor or focus.