Do you want to reduce complexity? Here is a real-life example from an IT systems landscape discussion on why less is more.
Recently, I was accidentally involved in a discussion on the IT systems landscape of a very large organization. People were confusing each other on the systems landscape in the discussion, and I wasn’t sure if the systems landscape actually existed or not.
How come?
All the people involved in the discussion were experts in their domains, and they were all excited and engaged about the topic.
Again, how come? Why did they confuse each other for two hours?
Complexity kills effects.
Let’s drill down a little to understand this phenomenon, which is, by the way, not just an issue in IT.
Terminology Matters
Ask anyone who has worked with me, and they will roll their eyes that I am super strict (or rather stubborn) on terminology.
But terminology matters. If you don’t use a common terminology, the discussion won’t go anywhere.
Let’s return to the example of the IT systems landscape. People were confusing each other on the terms service, system, and system of systems. At the end, somebody said that a service could also be a system, and a system could also be a service.
See the point? To reduce complexity, you have to define the core terms first. And once they’re properly defined, somebody has to enforce that the correct terms are used (that would be me). Otherwise, the discussion will go round in circles, yielding no effect at all.
Less is More, Episode 1
As I was not directly involved in the IT systems landscape discussion, I started drawing up my private IT systems landscape during the debate. For every IT system I use as a private person, I drew a little box. And then I connected the boxes with arrows to see how these systems interface. If I wasn’t sure where the data is stored for a system, I asked ChatGPT and I got an immediate answer.
Within half an hour, two things became apparent:
- The majority of the systems I use privately store their data in the Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services — even iCloud leverages those cloud services.
- I came across a handful of systems that I don’t really use, even though I have a login. I decided to demigrate them to reduce complexity.
Less is more.
Fewer discussions, more doing. Fewer systems, fewer dependencies, more clarity. It’s that simple. But you have to have the courage to start doing rather than just talking about it, and to remove everything non-essential.
If you think this only applies to IT systems landscape discussions, think twice. It’s the same for lengthy and overly complex PowerPoint slide decks and emails. Remove more slides and text than you add, and you will be fine.
Less is More, Episode 2
Straight after the mentioned IT systems landscape discussion, I met an old friend. We worked together at Yonder, the B2B SaaS company I co-founded, and he left some time ago to take up a corporate IT role in a large organization.
Still dismayed from the IT systems landscape discussion, I told him what I had just gone through. Without hesitating, my friend said that if half the people in his organization were removed, everything would still work just as fine as today. Don’t get me wrong, I do not propagate removing people at any cost — your team is your greatest asset.
Nevertheless, what about if we used the same team to generate twice the impact?
