Improvement Insights Blog

Do complex things seem smarter or just unnecessarily complicated?

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“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“Does it seem like we think complex things, complex writing, complex ideas are smarter? Or are they just incomprehensible? And isn’t that just dumb? What if we could simplify how we think about things?

“That’s what I’ve attempted to do with Agile Process Innovation is make improvement more accessible to the average Joe or Susie. You know, people have taken my Yellow Belt training and gone out and saved millions of dollars… millions of dollars. So, let’s not just accept that complexity is the way everything has to be done.

“I saw one guy – Tom DeMarco – long ago, in software development. He said, “Making something complex simple is a huge intellectual feat.” Going from complex to simple, straightforward, understandable, that’s a huge intellectual feat.

“So, stop regurgitating complexity. Find a way to say it simply.

“That’s my Improvement Insight. Let’s go out and improve something this week.”