{"id":1378,"date":"2014-05-19T16:16:21","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T16:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/?p=1378"},"modified":"2014-05-19T16:16:21","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T16:16:21","slug":"boost-productivity-through-simplicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/","title":{"rendered":"Boost Productivity Through Simplicity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Six-Simple-Rules-cover_80x125.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1382\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Six-Simple-Rules-cover_80x125.jpg\" alt=\"Six-Simple-Rules-cover_80x125\" width=\"80\" height=\"125\" \/><\/a>Life can be complex, but I am prone to complicating things. I tell myself to keep it simple, but I come up with all manner of scenarios and solutions for non-existing problems.<\/p>\n<p>So I found the message of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Six-Simple-Rules-Complexity-Complicated\/dp\/1422190552\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Six Simple Rules<\/a>&#8221; by Yves Morieux and Peter Tollman relevant to me. It reminded me that the best approach is often the most straightforward one.<\/p>\n<p>The authors offer six ways to manage organizational complexity in a simple way.<\/p>\n<p>Their simple approach is best illustrated by their first rule: understand what your people do. Managers often misdiagnose problems because they don&#8217;t know what employees are dealing with, or they fail to take into account that cooperation comes at a price.<\/p>\n<p>The audio clip below, from our Book Insight into &#8220;Six Simple Rules,&#8221; explains this in more detail.<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1378-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Six_Simple_Rules_blogaudio.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Six_Simple_Rules_blogaudio.mp3\">\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Six_Simple_Rules_blogaudio.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/community\/BookInsights\/SixSimpleRules.php\">Listen to the full Book Insight<\/a>&#160;in the Mind Tools Club&#160;&#166;&#160;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/go\/getflashplayer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Install<\/a>&#160;Flash Player<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Six Simple Rules&#8221; offers a straightforward solution to the complex problems organizations face. Learn more about it in our premium members&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/community\/BookInsights\/SixSimpleRules.php\">Book Insight<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Question:<\/strong> What parts of your business or organization do you need to simplify, and can you do that now? Join the discussion below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Life can be complex, but I am prone to complicating things. I tell myself to keep it simple, but I come up with all manner of scenarios and solutions for non-existing problems. So I found the message of &#8220;Six Simple Rules&#8221; by Yves Morieux and Peter Tollman relevant to me. It reminded me that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":34942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,176],"tags":[288,289,197],"reading-time":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-posts","category-strategy","tag-management","tag-organizational-design","tag-strategy-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Boost Productivity Through Simplicity - Mindtools<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out how to increase cooperation at work by breaking down complicated structures.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boost Productivity Through Simplicity - Mindtools\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Find out how to increase cooperation at work by breaking down complicated structures.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindtools\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-19T16:16:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/legacy\/1378\/GI_155428389_MichalKrakowiak-1024x683.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katherine Baldwin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katherine Baldwin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Katherine Baldwin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ewnova.live\/#\/schema\/person\/894b651de8b1ad4790afa65b500884ee\"},\"headline\":\"Boost Productivity Through Simplicity\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-19T16:16:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/\"},\"wordCount\":210,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ewnova.live\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/legacy\/1378\/GI_155428389_MichalKrakowiak.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"management\",\"organizational design\",\"strategy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"All Posts\",\"Strategy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/blog\/boost-productivity-through-simplicity\/\",\"name\":\"Boost Productivity Through Simplicity - 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