Why
Entrepreneurs (and Politicians) Should Embrace Complexity
Simple
is seductive, but not always smart.
Executive director, Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation
and Tech Entrepreneurship, Illinois Institute of Technology
There's
a lot to be said for simplicity. For many years, the rule of
Occam's Razor obtained, and it dictated that the simplest answer was most
likely to be the best. Short, sweet and to the point. I'm certainly on record as being an advocate of
brevity. But this is obviously not the be-all and end-all approach for every
situation.
Contrary
to the comics, most movies, and public opinion in general, in the real world,
not everything in our lives (or every problem) has a clear-cut solution. Some
conflicts and situations aren't likely to ever be solved even over substantial
periods of time and despite the best-intentioned efforts of many. They're
basically facts of life that we're stuck with for better or worse. One thing's
for certain though - it's pretty clear that our lives and our choices have
become a lot grayer these days and very little in them is black and white.
This
modest fact would seem to be especially valuable for our presidents,
politicians and sundry media blowhards to remember as they fire off their
latest knee-jerk responses to provocative tweets along with their pithy
pronouncements and their startlingly "simple" solutions. Watching the
latest Presidential debates, you could readily come to believe that there is
often a neat and simple answer for any problem, but, in fact, such makeshift
solutions (which distract us from addressing the real problems) are also almost
always wrong. The truth as far as choices goes is that only Hobson always got it right.
And,
for entrepreneurs in particular, exercising at least a little bit of caution is
especially critical when you're talking about making tough business choices and
complicated decisions. Today, in just about everything we do, we hope to find a
quick and straightforward reply to whatever we're being asked and/or a timely
and elegant solution for the problems we're facing. This isn't so much a
product of sheer laziness or a lack of intellectual curiosity as it is another
symptom of the constant time constraints we now live with and the resultant
"hurry sickness" that we're all victims of to some extent. It's our
"ready, fire, aim" world and it's bad for smart decision-making and
really bad for building your business.
Sadly, we've
come to believe - especially in the startup world - that almost any response is
better than waiting to take action until you've gathered at least some of the
critical facts. We hear that research is the old way of doing things - due
diligence, homework of any kind, or trying to find the customer's real problem
before starting on the solution - is so yesterday. I get that it's hard work,
that you can't figure it out sitting on your ass, that it all takes too much
time, and that things around you are moving so very fast. But
that doesn't justify settling for half an answer or not working the problem as
fully as required.
It's so
easy to say that it's better to get right out there, be super-lean, launch
something, and just start the ball rolling - hopefully downhill. You can always
course-correct and iterate along the way. But, just as likely, you can also
become roadkill. To be honest, it doesn't really matter how fast you're going
if you're on the wrong road and headed in the wrong direction. Looking for the
solution without first listening to and understanding the problem is like
working blindfolded in the dark. Some things just take time to do right.
And
every entrepreneur today is also told that any decision (right or wrong) is
better than not making a decision at all. It's all about speed which drives and
dictates everything else today. But the real goal isn't to make the fastest decisions;
it's to make the correct decisions and sometimes that means holding up a bit
and taking the necessary steps to assemble the required information so you can
make a thoughtful decision.
There's
no job or case analysis that's so simple that it can't be done wrong if you're
not careful and a little patient. In our busy lives, there's constant pressure
to reduce the consideration sets and to simplify the choices, especially if
you're trying to "manage up" to a busy boss, but it's often a bad
strategy because you can't reduce every challenge down to a simple
"either/or" equation. It would be nice, but the world doesn't work
that way today.
With
all the data and other resources which we now have, we can dramatically improve
the odds of getting to the right answer if we just widen our perspective and
take in a few more alternatives. Yes, it's more complicated and, if you overdo
it, too many choices (analysis paralysis) will kill any progress at all, but
too narrow a field (and a refusal to ever look outside the silo) leads as often
as not to the wrong result.
When
you're only offered black or white, you'll get it wrong around half the time.
But when you look at multiple options, the odds of getting it right move
smartly in your favor and you'll be batting .600 plus in no time at all.
PUBLISHED ON: JUL 9, 2019
