Leverage Complexity

Updated Friday, January 01, 2010

It’s one thing to do a specific task with excellence. To build a great business or rise inside of one, this remains abundantly true:

Your business or career success is directly correlated to your ability to manage complexity.

Complication is the malefactor, not complexity. It’s a collection of ambiguous choices that no one feels qualified to fix. That complication will dig in and grow. Taking that problem, and fixing it, is complex. Even after it’s fixed, there is always something else to fix or improve. Always. The more you learn, the more there is to fix, and that quickly grows into complexity.
Taking complications and complexity, embracing the ambiguity, and making lasting value from all that. That’s a master of complexity.
Complication in, order and execution out.

Can you do that? The better you can, the more you succeed. It’s the person who can’t be given enough problems because he/she always solves them, that moves up in business. That person is given more because they fix and enhance anything they are given.
Consider how management of complexity helps determine success. Here’s a small chart that helps visualize the phenomenon:

Note: choice factors have to do with implementation. For example, ‘how much expense would this incur for the company?’.

A business owner is on the far side of the scale, with many complexities (choice factors). Do it right and the business grows. Also, think of professionals. A teacher can’t demand too much because complexity is at the lower end of the scale. It’s certainly is important work, but the lessons are laid out and students handed over. Then think of a doctor. They have to run complex business on top complex patients and a huge amount of risk.

In terms of businesses, the most successful and largest today are highly complex. If you hear some other “zen” message from a supposed inside consultant, it’s not true. Take a look at their financials to dispel that notion.
Complexity is leveraged to work for you with much effort. Otherwise, its natural tendency will take hold, turning complexity into complication. Rather than being a force of success, it will be a source of decay.

About the author. I'm Adam Temple. After a degree in religion I ended up in the business world and just love it. Sermonspice.com was my first big splash as it's now a multi-million dollar company (which I love saying!). Bixly.com is the next notable effort. Expert programming seriously low prices. It came about as a last ditch effort to avoid working security detail. Bixly reminds me of adolescence: thriving with health and potential, but still learning.