I was feeling frazzled and overwhelmed as I dialed into the Zoom meeting with my friend, coach, and trusted advisor Greta. I had a lot going on—meetings, interviews, international travel—I was so busy I’d forgotten why I wanted to meet with her in the first place.
That’s a bit embarrassing, isn’t it?
But despite my confusion, I had clarity on what I wanted to do with our time together: center myself and explore why I felt so overwhelmed.
We did some breathing and “came into the room,” and then started talking about some of the work I had coming up. Greta helped me see something—yes, I did have a lot of important projects and events looming. But they were all commitments that felt “right” to me.
The problem wasn’t what was on my plate but how I was trying to eat it: in an intricate and complex fashion. I had prepared a simple meal, comfort food like roast chicken with potatoes and a side salad. But instead of a fork and knife, I brought a spoon, chopsticks, an egg spoon, a butter knife, a dessert spoon, a lobster crusher, and one of those little forks you use to get meat out of the tiny legs of a crab.
“Well, shit, I’ve done it again. I’m making things way more complex than they need to be.”
My tendency toward complexity shows up in a lot of contexts: my home life, my initial work plans with clients, and the way I structure my work with my team. I often have to walk back my first instincts to get to something that is practicable.
Working with complexity is one of my superpowers. I wrote a book on it, after all, and it’s the foundation of much of my work, so it’s not surprising that I lean into complexity as the first step.
Many of the organizations I work with have complex systems not because they were designed that way, but because they’ve been added to as business changes. Many of the leaders of those organizations are under pressure to perform and deliver, and they just have to deal with these old, inefficient processes because it’s easier than spending time updating them.
In these complex environments, it’s easy to overcomplicate the solutions to our problems. But that complexity is often counterproductive; it moves us further from our goal rather than closer to it.
Sometimes I forget that complexity is not necessarily the best way. The good news is that my awareness is growing, sometimes on my own, but often with the support of a coach like Greta, conversations with clients and friends, and feedback from my team. This support helps me step back and make the important shifts that allow me to be more effective.
With this awareness, I was able to unpack my commitments and deal with them in simple but effective ways. Over the next few days, I tackled a number of nuanced projects with ease, laying the groundwork for a week in London, working with two sophisticated clients who were dealing with extremely complex business and leadership challenges of their own.
In the end, the work felt great. I leaned on the simple approaches I had created and was able to be present and in the moment with my clients. The conversations I facilitated were complex and nuanced; my approach was not.
Do you have a complex business problem that would benefit from a simple approach? I would love to hear from you! Click here if you’d like to schedule an appointment, or you can reach out to me on Twitter and LinkedIn to share the ways you’ve successfully brought simplicity into your business.
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