satorimedia

Slow Leadership Puts Simplicity in its Place

Thank you, Carmine Coyote.

Maybe it's because my name is Gray that I hate people who try and lump the world into simply black and white. Maybe it's more along the lines that I've never found any situation in my life that did not have complex nuances even in the few places where there were straightforward answers (such as, do I raise my kids or let someone else have custody?). Perhaps it's simply because I have a mind that is constantly playing the various solutions to any challenges, analyzing and evaluating and choosing various methods of overcoming whatever challenges were placed in my path.

Pick whatever reason you like, one thing I have never believed, is that life is simple. In fact, my religion of choice, Zen, is pretty much based on the acceptance that life is not simple, and we kind of need to deal with that anyway. That only by accepting that life is just going to be life, and dealing with that, can we hope to end some of the suffering.

So it was with great joy that I read the words of one of the smartest people I've ever come across, Carmine Coyote of Slow Leadership, absolutely rip the KISS principle apart:

"I’ve often wondered precisely what this means. Does it just mean that that it’s foolish to embrace complexity, because people are so stupid you have to make everything simple . . . or they’ll be unable to grasp any of it? Or does it mean that keeping it simple is necessary because you are stupid, so any complexity is bound to be too much for you?"

YES! God, yes! We recently had some consultants come in to present to our Board; I was in the control room, broadcasting the meeting, so they didn't get to hear my choked shock and outrage as I heard them suggest that our district's message needed to be "simplified" not down to a key idea, not a key phrase - but down to a key "word". That's right. One word.

Worse, the suggestion they came up with - and which actually resonated with some of our leadership - was that the word should be (wait for it...)

Every.

Yeah. That's right. Every. Every what, you ask? Well, gee, the fact that you have to ask that kind of defeats the whole idea of having a single catchphrase that defines our organization, don't you think?

Carmine goes on to describe what perhaps might be the difficulty with simplicity: it ain't simple.

"There are two principal kinds of simplicity. One is easily produced: take a quick, superficial view, based on some scrappy sound-bite, and ignore anything that might add complexity..."

"The other kind of simplicity is tough, demanding, and may take years to achieve. That comes from long and careful thought, thorough research, and a profound understanding of all the elements involved."

I would argue that this is less actual simplicity and more a quality of grace. It reminds me of a juggler I saw once at a faire. He was an older man, especially for such a demanding job - probably mid 60's. He did a routine bouncing five balls off a board, and the fluidity and conservation of motion made this highly complex task look almost an afterthought.

It was the years of practice, the slow and steady perfection of skills, that made it look "simple". That's the difference between juggling and magic, by the way: jugglers take very difficult things and make them look simple, and magicians take very simple things and make them look hard.

Me, I hope, at some point, to achieve a measure of grace. Because I know, for a fact, that life will never be simple. Neither would I want it to be; as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said, "God is in the details." The wonderfully complex, rich, and intricate details.

The Jester's Tradition

The more things change, the more things stay the same. My girlfriend and I were watching the Madison Opera's rendition of Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers" yesterday afternoon, and as opera novices we were a little put off by the, well, lack of subtlety. It was an age-old problem: men in power letting their jealousy (and literally, in this case, fear of being unloved) govern their actions, inciting mobs to riot. It really seemed to be pathetic, since the opera, written long ago, could really have come out of today's headlines (but perhaps with astronauts and text messages instead of Temple Virgins). The lack of maturity in human culture is sometimes enough to make us despair.

Chris Brogan, however, points out that some of the archetypes may be there for a reason. The role of jester, for example, as someone who can sort of jolt those in power into non-linear thinking is something that is truly valuable:

The beauty of a Jester is that they can skirt diplomacy and poise. They are in the position of speaking truth to power, so to say, provided they can do it with a turn of wit. Thus, in several situations, the Jester is in a position to say something to an opposing force or even a tenuous ally that the local Royalty cannot willingly say.

I suspect that companies such as 37signals and blogs such a AListApart (and people like Merlin Mann) are all jesters, of one way or another. It's not just that they have clever ideas. Their presentation of these ideas, whether through innovative software (LOVE Basecamp!) or elegant articles or witty repartee (Merlin's becoming quite the celeb; I can't wait for him to land his own show and get PAID well for it).

I think I have something of that as well. In collaborating on presentations with Heidi Miller, for example, we have noted that she tends to be very, very good at the organization of thoughts and research...and my role, generally, is to find entertaining ways to present that information. I have to give her credit for respecting that as a skill, and not simply as a trick. Any other examples of Jesters in the Modern World that come to mind?

Dieting.

Organization has the same fascination for me that surgery does.

That is, it seems to be a learned skill that accomplishes amazing things...but that seems utterly foreign to me.

My friends and loved ones are always the first to point out that I really do have an excuse--I was, at the age when most people were figuring out their personal finances and building the foundation of future security, scrambling to feed four infant daughters with, as the job promoter put it, "no useful skills outside of Croatia." We survived those years, but surviving them was the accomplishment--being organized, in time, work, or finances, was not.

Which is why I still tend to live paycheck to paycheck, which is kind of funny, since I'm making at least twice as much now as a year ago (when I was also living paycheck to paycheck). It's something like the principle of moving into a new home; you always tend to expand to fill the space you live in.

Still, the lack of financial organization is costly in more than money--in stress, in security, in simple pleasures of being able to get things for my (now teenage) daughters. So I've decided to tackle it the same way that I recently successfully tackled my eating habits: a diet.

Not a starvation diet, to be sure. But rather a measured change in my spending habits, much as the way I eat has changed over the last few months. For the food diet to work, I had to also implement an exercise program, so I suspect that I'll have to do some "income-building" exercises as well.

In keeping with my love of paper, this caught my eye this morning. Of course, there are modules like it in the PocketMod system, as well as the DIYPlanner (which I'm considering, should I be able to acquire some card stock). Of course, part of me also thinks I should just use my Palm more effectively...I seem to be a wannabe Luddite.

Most of all, while I've been doing better with the "Getting Things Done" system in terms of accomplishing things, I don't seem to have a good grasp on applying them to finances. Weekly and daily reviews only help if they are a part of the diet; otherwise, as the past week has shown me, it's simply a daily dose of watching things spiral further out of control.