Making the Complex Simple

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Making the Complex Simple - Research

Research references, notes and links

Ash Holliday

Last edited 13 days ago by Ash Holliday

This page is for

Collecting references I need to mention in the book as footnotes

Notes on what I want to cover or ideas I am exploring

Links to sources of videos, stories, data, ideas found on the web or from using AI

Books to refer to:

Simplexity: Simplifying Principles for a Complex World Kindle Edition

Alain Berthoz⁠

(Author)

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https://www.amazon.com.au/Simplexity-Simplifying-Principles-Complex-World-ebook/dp/B083ZNKPRN/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=⁠

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Three books that can get you on track for building a simple customer experience:

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Insanely Simple by Ken Segall⁠

: “Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. Steve Jobs’ obsession with simplicity is what separates Apple from other technology companies. It’s what helped Apple recover from near death in 1997 to become the most valuable company on Earth in 2011 and guides the way Apple is organized, how it designs products, and how it connects with customers. It’s by crushing the forces of complexity that the company remains on its stellar trajectory.”

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Insanely Simple - key takeaways

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The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda⁠

: “Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We’re rebelling against technology that’s too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte ‘read me’ manuals. The iPod’s clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: We want something that’s simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers 10 laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design — guidelines for needing less and actually getting more.”

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The Power Of Simplicity by Jack Trout⁠

: “Renowned marketing expert and bestselling author Jack Trout has a message for managers who are struggling to keep up with today’s ever-changing business climate: ‘Keep It Simple.’ Trout advocates the importance of paying attention to the basics and simplifying processes in order to stay focused on the core business at hand. Through case studies and interviews with successful executives, he shows managers how to cut through the jargon, articulate their vision, and regain control of the vital elements of their business in order to make it thrive.”

The Ultimate Blueprint for an insanely successful business by Keith J Cunningham

80/20 Sales & Marketing by Perry Marshall - Mostly just pulling the idea of the 80/20 to help simplicity

Unassigned ideas

Need to discuss the concept from 0-2 - yes it is ok to be messy here and yes complexity starts setting in, ideally you start 0-1 and clean up but most people really dont start feeling the pain until 2. This is why this books focusses on 2-10

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`Introduction`⁠
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`What is this book`⁠
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`Who is this for?`⁠
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Understanding Complexity and Simplicity

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`What complexity really is`⁠
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Example from insanely simple Steve Keggal

Miscommunication is where complexity creeps in

Brutal respectful honesty will help this

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Why simple can still be complex

Perplexity:

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/why-can-the-complex-be-simple-Qbx91jIgR2y5mpQfo2Leew⁠

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Simon Syniek video on your job is to shape the environment positive, negative simplified or complex

If you want to grow you have to make it simple as Dan Martel - you need to work through people 2-10 million

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/t5ETX6Ruhwc5Deef/?mibextid=UalRPS⁠

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Great notes and quotes on simplicity reasons for the attracting customers + good book suggestions

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https://uxmag.com/articles/what-is-simplicity-theory-why-people-prefer-simple-experiences⁠

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This link has some great ideas for examples between simplicity, complicated and complex

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https://abdulapopoola.com/2018/06/26/chaotic-complex-and-complicated-systems-understanding-complexity-a-system-for-categorizing-problems-and-solutions/⁠

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“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”— Confucius

Most geniuses—especially those who lead others—prosper not by deconstructing intricate complexities but by exploiting unrecognized simplicities.”— Andy Benoit

Interesting blog on ideas why we do complexity, what are the barriers to simplicity; for example, the lack of trust

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https://www.sevenconsulting.com/complex-is-cool-simple-is-scary/⁠

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In mathematics, this is a property known as aperiodicity and the notion of an aperiodic tile set using only two tiles was such a sensation, it was given the name Penrose tiling.

This pattern is life. And as you can see, life's complicated.

It's complicated. But not only is life complicated, life is also aperiodic in the sense that every event, every happening, every decision will make the future unfold differently,often in ways that are impossible to predict.

Yet, in spite of the complexity and in spite of a future that's impossible to predict, there remains an underlying unity that holds everything together and gives rise to everything.

Let's see how that works in a design much like the one Peter Lu found in Uzbekistan.

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`The Power of Simplicity`⁠
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Draw on notes from

“Insanely Simple by Ken Segall”⁠

, here Apples story = profitable loyal customer base

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`Better or Bigger`⁠
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What comes first⁠

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`Bigger vs Complexity`⁠
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Story - Growing pains - growth with problems = bigger problem⁠

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Better vs Complexity

Simplicity is the ultimate efficiency. (from insanely Simple Ken Segall Chapter 2 notes)

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`The process`⁠
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`You can't change a plan if you don't have a plan`⁠
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But my Business is different⁠

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`Plan Do Check Act`⁠
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`The process`⁠
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Reference Albert Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”

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https://killerinnovations.com/einsteins-secret-to-effective-problem-solving/#:~:text=Albert%20Einstein%20once%20said%2C%20“If,problem%2Dsolving%20that%20many%20overlook.⁠

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Devil and the detail⁠

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`Defining Your Business Focus`⁠
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Your goals business and Personal

Primary business focus

Target market

Customer

Business model

Building Sand Castles

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`Business Building blocks`⁠
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📚Lego - when to use glue (Part 1)

Stakeholder Management

Strategy Execution: Beyond the Buzzwords

Strategy Execution just a fancy term or something else?

📚Wall to wallet (a Strategy Execution story)

Mindset (yours, the customer and of course the team)

Insanely simple Steve Kegal

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Mindset quotes from Simon Synek

Rather than shiny object syndrome

https://coda.io/d/Tropical-MBA_d_m7Mbwa-9V/742-Shiny-Object-Syndrome_sub7SxXk#_luS2zDAh⁠

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Value Chain

A word on data

Graph on Financial Performance Improvement https://hbr.org/2019/04/the-positive-effect-of-operational-efficiency-on-financial-performance

We only improve what we...?

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Measurement madness⁠

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Simplifying and Optimising Business Models

Business Optimisation

Simplifying Business Models

📚The Lean Startup & what we can learn

Statistics on Business Model Simplification

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-need-for-simplicity-in-strategic-planning⁠

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Pragmatism in Business Problem Solving

Pragmatic Decision Making

Falkland's Law: 'When there is no need to make a decision, Don't make a decision

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Understanding Falkland's Law: Embracing Patience in Decision-Making Understanding Falkland's Law: Embracing Patience in Decision-MakingTable of Contents Introduction Key Characteristics of Falkland’s Law Components of Falkland’s Law Implications of Falkland’s Law Implementation Methods for Falkland’s Law Benefits of Understanding Falkland’s Law Challenges of Impl... www.hulkapps.com⁠

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Pragmatic decision making vs systems dancing in the system slow informed vs urgent but don't have it all -

Pragmatic Problem Solving

📚Pragmatic Solutions

Problem & Impact

Problem and impact

Kidlin's law states: If you write the problem down clearly, then the matter is half solved.

Essentially this is generally a correct statement (assuming its clear and correct)

Everyone would have you follow this to better enact this law (see link to help describe) - but these are what you need to do after you have a clear problem satement (and they do not even consider therefore or better understood as impact).

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Solve Any Problem by Kidlin’s Law There are many problems in our life that we need to solve. We constantly deal with problems in our business life, social relations… medium.com⁠

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What you need to do first is understand the Narrative - Which is why we have only just gotten to the Problem statement - without a good sense of how your complex business works you will never write a clear problem and therefore statement

The gap between now and future

You can't fix it all

The 80/20

The Importance of Root Cause Analysis

Beware the low hanging fruit

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.” ― Desmond Tutu : https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5943.Desmond_Tutu?page=6

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`Fixing Symptoms vs Root causes`⁠
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📚 Fixes that fail

📚 Shifting the burden - balance between short and long term

Root Cause

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`Finally the Fix`⁠
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Solving the Root Cause - it was not what we expected⁠

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Tools & when to use

Tools & how to use

📚 The halfway point

Diagnosing Complex Business Problems

📚 Gemba not just a fun game

Solutions, executing & integrating

📚I have tried that before, it didn't work!

Always more than one way

Executing & Integrating

Tactics for shiny objects syndrome :

https://coda.io/d/Tropical-MBA_d_m7Mbwa-9V/742-Shiny-Object-Syndrome_sub7SxXk#_luS2zDAh⁠

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Leveraging Technology for Efficiency and Growth

Leveraging Technology to fix problems

📚Power tools aren't always quicker

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`Leveraging Technology for Growth`⁠
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Technology Leverage⁠

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Charts on Business Efficiency Tools

https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3983540/chart-2021-project-management-magic-quadrant⁠

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https://www.dell.com/en-us/dt/perspectives/digital-transformation-index.htm⁠

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Breaking Down Silos and Building Culture

Building Culture

📚Breaking Down Silos

Effective Change Management

📚But that's how we have always done it!

📚Diversity Dilemma

Transparency and Trust in Leadership

Transparency Builds Trust

Simon Sinek Transparency quote https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simonsinek_transparency-doesnt-mean-sharing-every-detail-activity-6906611933743837184-poPV/

📚Transparency Triumphs