
Photo by ThrasherDave
Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life. - Katharine Fullerton Gerould
One of my coworkers was seeking authorization to spend funds in advance of the receipt of a contract. In other words, he wanted the company to foot the bill for some long-lead-time material so that he could make his deliveries to his customer on time. The contract award was bogged down on the negotiation of terms and conditions, and the customer had instituted a faster-than-normal delivery schedule. Not wanting to disappoint the customer, my coworker took the proactive step of securing the funds. But that’s not the point I’m writing about.

Photo by Matt Ryall
The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity. - Douglas Horton
See, he had to fill out an authorization form. It included cost projections, an estimated date of when we would receive the contract from our customer, and a termination liability profile. It also included a box that needed to be filled in called “Maximum Potential for Future Income”. There were convoluted instructions for filling in the box that would have made Rube Goldberg’s head spin, including a confusing formula. We stood around staring at it like a bunch of chimpanzees contemplating a shiny object. After running the numbers, and making a few phone calls, it became apparent that what they were looking for was a projection of net income. Why they didn’t just label the box “Net Income” is beyond me.

Photo by miss_rogue
Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity. - Thor Heyerdahl
Unfortunately, this is but one example of over-complication that I’ve run into at work. I’ve had to read and re-read procedures to get to the basic points that they contain. On more than one occasion, we’ve found situations that were not addressed in these wordy procedures. The writer of the procedure would have been better served by explaining the standards in plain language, rather than talking like a Philadelphia lawyer. My car lease has less words in the fine print!

Photo by caesararum
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. - Edsger Dijkstra
So, I beseech you. Keep it simple. What you gain by forgoing the flowery dialogue will help speed things up significantly. In the example that I used, no less than 6 people were involved in figuring out what “”Maximum Potential for Future Income” meant. Everyone at work already knows how smart you are. Save your fellow chimps some time by cutting to the chase and keeping it simple.
Print This Post
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
Related Posts -
Excel How-to: Creating a Pivot Table A pivot table is a merely a summary of data in a format that you can manipulate to suit your needs. Almost any array of data can be used to create a pivot table, given some simple rules: The column labels must be in the first row, and have distinct...... -
Corporate Barbarian: The Pool is Open Edition jurvetson We opened up the swimming pool this past weekend, so summer should be right around the corner. All we need now is for the weather to cooperate. It feels more like April than June. I spent a couple days scrubbing the winter cover and water bags, and yesterday...... -
20 Blogs That Have Inspired Me h.koppdelaney I signed up for Darren Rowse's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge, and today's assignment was to create a list post. Darren's site, Problogger, has provided me with great information that has helped me launch this blog. I decided to make a list of all of......
Related Websites -
How to Work Less and Make More Money With Multiple Streams of Income Most of us would like the chance to spend more time with our families, work a lot less and still bring in a sizeable income. If you’re only going to rely on your current income, the chances of that happening are pretty small, unless you’ve got an incredible job. However,...... -
How to Negotiate with Wireless Carriers A few months ago, my brother went over his text message allotment (200) as part of our family plan, and I thought this was an abberation, so I increased his text messages to 1,500 for the month. I didn't want this to continue. With overage charges being 20 cents...... -
Who's your marketing competition? Las Vegas versus Disney World I had an interesting conversation with the Vice President of a local web design firm the other day at the Twins game. I do some copy-writing and search engine optimization for their marketing and web design clients and they were kind enough to invite me to a company outing at the Metrodome (the Twins......










