Six Simple Rules: How to Manage Complexity without Getting Complicated

Conclusion

Underlying the management of today’s organizations is a set of beliefs and practices—the hard and soft approaches we have discussed at length in this book—that, given the new complexity of business, have become obsolete. There is no kinder way to say it. Adhering to these obsolete approaches in trying to better manage complexity results in organizational complicatedness, which damages productivity and erodes people’s satisfaction at work. It is a vicious circle. The primary goal of the simple rules is to create more value by better managing business complexity. This involves abandoning the hard and soft approaches. In doing so, you also remove complicatedness and its costs. Simplification is not a goal in itself, but a valuable by-product ...