Simply Effective

PREFACE

This book grew out of my long-standing interest in making organizations simpler and more effective. My thoughts about how to do this were first expressed in “Simplicity-Minded Management,” an article I wrote for Harvard Business Review in 2007.¹ There, I highlighted the importance of simplifying organizations—structure, products, processes, and behaviors—so that leaders could make it easier for their people to get results and delight customers. My hope was that managers would confront the reality that much of the complexity in their organizations was self-generated and would begin to view “simplicity-mindedness” as a competence or skill that they should develop over the course of their careers.

After the article was published, I received ...