Art of being ‘Simply Put’

There is one type of categorization of people: Too Theoretical/ Too Task oriented (Practical in other words). Both can demean one’s calibre if tagged so, but how does one really achieve the middle path (ideal path as one will understand?)

I have been thinking about it a lot of late i.e.  how do I decide for myself whether I am too practical/ too theoretical? And which is better to adopt, and under what circumstances?

Luckily I watched a movie today, and loved it for the heroic acts of protagonist trying to rescue a little girl separated from her parents who belonged to the neighbouring country. The challenge was not only to overcome the hurdles posed by the two countries at war, but also to be at constant fight with self against the deeply ingrained values and beliefs. He kept on re-iterating to self that he couldn’t do anything in hiding.

He appeared to be too innocent to actually achieve his objective with that belief since crossing the border is a humungous task, especially when the two countries are at war, when there is so much miss-trust in the air, when there are so many examples of blood-shed and apathy from either side.

However, think of it in a ‘naïve’ manner – isn’t it just about taking a small step and be on the other side of the artificial ‘line’? Well at least the movie turned out to be like that when the actor got successful in crossing the border by simply telling the truth and clarifying what his intent was. It obviously took lot of courage and trust to be able to do so but he ended up  being successful.

And I got lured to apply it at workplace. Don’t you feel it happens often in a team set up that even before it gets on to the actual task, each individual build his/ her own version of how complex the work is going to be? There are so many pre-conceived inhibitions that completing a particular activity looks like an impossible task.

The most important task therefore, even before you start rolling any task to the team is to simplify it and that is where the maximum hard work needs to go. Yes, Simplicity takes work but the end result is a focussed team that knows exactly what to do in the simplest manner. And that simplest is what I would call the middle path! – Neither Too Theoretical, nor too task oriented, but ‘Simple’ that otherwise requires the maximum understanding of a subject, and a detailed planning too.

Quoting the two geniuses below, the same has been valued both by a philosopher and a scientist that may perhaps highlight the value of simplification in two mutually independent fields

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated” – Confucius

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” – Albert Einstein

So simplify for yourself, your business, and for your audience. It cuts through the noise and great results follow.