Think about the humble cocktail stick.

Nothing fancy – just a short, sharp piece of wood. Simple in design yet still multi-functional.

It can be used for drinks umbrellas. It can be used as a toothpick. It can be used to mix up snack concoctions like cheese and meat cubes. It can be used for cleaning tiny gaps on tiles. And probably quite a few other things as well.

It’s just a simple, skinny, small piece of wood but it benefits so many people. So why do business owners continue to make things so difficult?

Do you really need a 15-point marketing plan when a six-point one will do? Do you really need multiple divisions of the same department to convey the same single message? Do you need so many job descriptions?

Less is more. It’s true. It’s not just some wishful thinking from a business coach somewhere – it works.

Customers don’t want to have to wade through multiple options just to get to the end result. They’re happier just having to choose between flavours and box sizes rather than where it’s made, who designed it, who boxed it, etc.

Same goes for employees. Sure, processes are good and help a business to run more efficiently. But only if the process is smooth and efficient itself.

If there’s a problem, wouldn’t it make more sense to have an open door policy where all ideas can be looked at, as opposed to relying on a message being passed on by a supervisor who may not like someone?

The best ideas come from off the wall thinking – who better than the people in the field working your company day in, day out? So why not make it simple for ideas to improve your company and service?

• Open a company-wide wiki where suggestions can be uploaded by anyone. Feedback can be exchanged and department efficiency improved.

• Use a good messenger system like Yammer or Socialtext to have instant access to what’s happening anywhere in the company at any given time as well as a dashboard for connecting ideas.

• Remove the phone tree approach to letting ideas be heard. Remember the old wooden suggestion boxes on walls? Why not have Human Resources have an open calendar where employees can book time-slots to discuss issues on specific topics?

• Cut down on redundant descriptions that no-one but the CEO cares about. Is there really a major difference between Vice-President, senior VP, executive senior VP, executive VP and on and on? One leader, one team, no?

I don’t know – maybe I’m wrong. Maybe business needs to be complicated. Maybe the more complicated a process is the more it appears weighty and worth listening to. Maybe simple is wasted on business.

But I bet someone once said that the cocktail stick was too simple to succeed. Stranger things have happened, no?

photo credit: B Tal

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