“Simplicity-Minded Management”
Harvard Business Review
December 2007, pp. 101-109
Organizations have become increasingly complex, ungovernable and unwieldy. Performance is declining, accountability is unclear, decision rights are muddy and data are crunched repeatedly, often with no clear purpose in mind. The author of this article and his colleagues have studied the sources of organizational complexity and identified several areas of opportunity that need to be address simultaneously in a “multidimensional, ongoing strategy”:
- Make simplification a goal not a virtue—Approaches include:
- Include simplicity as a theme of the organization’s strategy
- Set specific targets for reducing complexity
- Create performance incentives that reward simplicity
- Simplify the organizational structure—Approaches include:
- Reduce levels and layers
- Increase spans of control
- Consolidate similar structures
- Prune and simplify products and services—Approaches include:
- Employ product portfolio strategy
- Eliminate, phase out, or sell low-value products
- Counter “feature creep”
- Discipline business and governance processes—Approaches include:
- Create well-defined decision structures (councils, committees)
- Streamline operating processes (planning, budgeting, and so on)
- Involve employees at the grass-roots level
- Simplify personal patterns—Approaches include:
- Counter communication overload
- Manage meeting time
- Facilitate collaboration across organizational boundaries
The article includes a survey to help a manager gauge their organization’s “complexity quotient”. It also provides a set of questions for senior executives to ask themselves to assess their own complexity-inducing behaviors.
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