Any intelligent person can make things bigger and more complex, but it takes a genius and courage to act in the other direction. E. F. Schumacker

Unfinished plans, meetings with no conclusions, strategies without results, these are all actions I encounter while interacting with every manager or team.

The challenge that Einstein started and which I encourage further is to make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Many managers are used to believe that the most complex strategies and plans are in fact, the ones they need to solve a certain situation. One of the reasons would be that usually we try to be different than others, find better solutions or leave out personal touch on a situation. But while trying to get these results, we lose touch with the initial plan that we had, making us focus on unimportant details which lead us nowhere.

Mark Twain explained this fact through his famous quote I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead. In other words, we spin around the solution and only bring complicated ideas to solve our problems. But this can only build a chain of unfinished actions, just like in Radu’s case, when he worked in the marketing department in a famous company for electronics.

Radu was pleased with the job he did because he was a creative, spontaneous person, also fascinated of graphics and design and his job made him work in these specific areas. But his ambition was great – Radu wanted to be the best Marketing Director and even go further, towards the General Director position. He planned on getting involved in several additional activities that would help him improve his results and ended up working for a management course. But things did not turn out the way he planned.

He wasted a lot of time to sign in for this course and a shot while after he had to take part to a theoretical preparation, without any practical exercises. Therefore, he ended up being tired all the time, because he spent too much of it for the course and having no energy left to get involved in what really mattered.

But Radu did not give up; he got involved in several difficult projects which had a very high stake in the organization. He created complex action plans which involved many colleagues of his. He made presentations after presentations for the management team in order to convince everyone that he was really good in controlling such situations.

-          Does this seem complicated to you?

In fact it really is, because Radu lost himself in all these presentations, actions and courses which needed to be completed fast. He lost his sense of direction and forgot where he wanted to go and how it all started.

-Do you feel that you lost your way during action?

-Do you want more things in the same time?

While working with a coach, Radu discovered one thing – that he made things complicated when the final result wasn’t clear enough. When your goal is clear, the actions are simple.

Confucius said that Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated, a concept which proves to be real in every day of our lives.