Ever notice some people make everything look easy?
In recent weeks I've had the privilege of having lunch or coffee with CEO's from around the area. Some own dot-coms. Some have more traditional businesses. All are successful and all have one thing in common—they make it look easy.
Once you sit with them for an hour or so, another common thread emerges ... they focus on the simple things.
It's the mark of a professional to accomplish complex, extraordinary tasks in a peaceful, artful way. But these pros don't often talk about the complex. Their focus is on the simple. They'll explain their business as a collection of simple tasks and, one at a time, they work through and perfect each of them (sometimes this takes years).
What stands out to me is that how these CEO's see their business not as one complexity, but as a group of simple parts. It's difficult to perfect complexity. But complex systems, broken down to their simpler parts, perfected on the simple level, then reassembled is a method we can all adopt.
Get ready. It requires patience.
It also requires a new perspective, one where we ask ourselves: What about this is simple? Then, how can I refine that simple piece?
This reminds me of so many organizations. Take Red Envelope, for example. This online company offers items similar to your neighborhood gift boutique. So what makes it special?
A red box with a white ribbon.
The gift-wrapping communicates care, patience, love and a dozen other emotions. And it all started when someone chose to take a simple task like gift-wrapping and elevate it, perfect it.
Were they the first to take this approach? Nope. Ask most women what color a Tiffany & Co. box looks like and they'll know the answer. Lee Michael's jewelry does the same.
It's by focusing on the subtle, that the gross is improved. Indeed, this is how every human system since the dawn of our civilization has improved. I'll argue that it won't change.
We achieve complex success through mastery of the simple. I focus on communication, but it's true for any task. Sure, the devil is in the details ... but so is our only opportunity to grow.
