Complexity is the defining character of our age. We see it encroaching on us from every direction. Complexity seems to have infected even those things that were at one time very simple. Remember S&H Green Stamps, one of the first customer loyalty programs? My parents and grandparents collected them whenever they made a purchase at a participating vendor. They licked and placed them in books until they had enough to redeem for an item in the S&H Catalog. They sent the required number of books and pages of green stamps off to wherever and a short time later we received the item in the mail. A model of simplicity compared to what we have now.

For example, consider frequent flyer, hotel rewards, retail rewards and credit cards with customer loyalty rewards programs. We sign up because we want the rewards they say we can get. However, when we go to get our rewards, we usually run SMACK into hurdles, pits, snags, walls and other barriers. Ever tried to use your frequent flier miles for a trip that has to fall within certain time constraints? How about the same for a hotel rewards stay? Those who have will tell you it’s a challenge of Olympic proportions. Now try to align the flyer rewards flight and a rewards hotel stay. Forget it!

Why are these programs so incredibly complex? The concept is simple. Reward our customers for doing business with us. Buy ten cups of coffee and get the eleventh for free. What would that program look like if the airlines got hold of it? Let’s see… our busiest coffee days are Friday through Monday, so we limit our free cups of coffee to a total of 10 each day on those days, and 30 the rest of the week. “Sorry, we just gave out our last free cup today; try again tomorrow and be early to make sure you get one.” Then we have some very busy times of the year and therefore, we need to have coffee blackout dates. “Sorry, we can’t give you your free coffee today, it’s a blackout week. Please try again next week.” But there’s coffee enough to sell me a cup, isn’t there?

I don’t mean to pick on only the rewards programs; it just happens to be an easy target. Complexity plagues so many types and areas of businesses. From the products and services themselves, to the post sale support, and especially in the systems and programs within the organization to support the customer. Clearly, all this complexity creates confusion for the customer, employees and business partners. “Bob’s your uncle.” Or so I thought…

Then I was reading the book On Intelligence, by Palm and Treo inventor Jeff Hawkins, who is performing research on how the brain actually forms intelligence. He was talking about how much research had been done in the area of brain function, yet how complex it was. Our attempts to create intelligent behavior in machines based on that complex view of the brain had failed miserably at creating “artificial intelligence.” Then he said something that grabbed my attention unshakably. He said, “Complexity is a symptom of confusion, not a cause.” After reading that I stopped for a moment and the lights went on. Then he continued to basically say when we are confused and unclear about something and our view of it is complex, we tend to create applications of knowledge that reflect the same complexity and confusion. However, when we really get how something works and we have clarity around it, the complexity is gone! You’ve experienced it; that feeling of confusion and complexity until all of a sudden you get it and see how simple it really is. Eureka! It’s Lights-on! It’s dirt simple to us then.

When we create processes, applications, products, and programs with that same clarity, they elicit that same simplicity. Even for those using them that may not understand the inner workings and concepts, it appears simple and magical. This is as it should be.

Hawkins hit it dead on. Complexity is truly born of confusion. Complexity is a mud bog full of points of failure and causes of work. Whenever we see complexity in any part of our organizations, we need to ask the question: “What are we confused about?” Are we confused about who our customer is? Are we confused about the process the customer is engaged in? Are we confused about what the successful customer outcomes are? The companies succeeding today are the ones making the lives of their customers (and employees) simpler, easier and more successful; in other words, ridding our lives and their companies of complexity.

Don Smith, CPP Lead Coach

Director - International Process and Performance Institute
www.ipapi.org