When I speak to audiences, there are two questions I consistently ask, and the answers are always revealing. First: How much complexity do you experience in your daily work? The response is overwhelmingly 'often' or 'very often'—a resounding plea for relief. Second: What do you spend your day doing? The answer is a litany of tasks: meetings, emails, putting out fires, dealing with urgent requests, juggling priorities. We all acknowledge that complexity is a problem, but not necessarily for the reasons one might think. Yes, it drains resources and money, but its true menace lies in its tendency to suffocate meaningful work.

While the desire to simplify is universal, leaders often find themselves at a loss for how to address the issue. Surprisingly, fear emerges as one of the biggest barriers to simplification among teams: fear of eliminating something deemed essential, fear of displeasing higher-ups. Interestingly, most leaders would welcome proactive efforts from their teams to streamline processes and eliminate unnecessary tasks. This not only enhances focus and agility but also propels teams closer to achieving their goals. As a leader, granting teams the freedom and encouragement to simplify is paramount.

Start by giving voice to people's frustrations and addressing them with some straightforward, inspiring questions at your next status meeting:

1. What are your biggest time sucks? When an HR leader at McGraw-Hill posed this question, the response was unanimous: the Monthly Operating Report (MOR). It consumed days of valuable time, went unread, and duplicated information from other reports. After piloting its removal for three months, no one missed it. So, the report was killed.

2. If you could eliminate any two rules at work to make space for more valuable work, what would they be? Brace yourself for a flood of ideas. During one session at Pfizer, teams identified hundreds of rules, time drains, and inefficiencies—and eliminated dozens of them in under an hour. That's tangible impact.

3. If you could eliminate 20% of your workload that adds no value, what would you stop doing? At one leadership offsite at AT&T, teams pinpointed their source of complexity: convoluted decision-making processes. By clarifying responsibilities, they instantly saved valuable time, streamlining some decisions from taking days to just hours.

4. Which meetings have outlived their usefulness and should be cancelled or changed? At Sprint, prior to its acquisition by T-Mobile, a meeting audit led to the demise of countless 'zombie meetings' that served no purpose.

Asking questions like these sends a powerful message to your team: your time matters, and it's acceptable (and expected) to challenge the status quo. Doing so regularly affords people the opportunity to think more critically, generate innovative ideas, and alleviate stress. The next time your team gets together, create a space for simplification by posing just one of these questions. You'll be inundated with ideas and witness the transition towards more meaningful work.

Simplicity isn't just a lofty aspiration—it's a strategic imperative. By empowering teams to question, streamline, and eliminate non-essential tasks, leaders foster a culture of efficiency and innovation. So, dare to ask the four simplification questions and unlock the transformative potential that lies within your organization.

To learn more about Lisa Bodell, please visit here: https://www.executivespeakers.com/speaker/lisa-bodell