Ian M Rountree

Copywriter, Project Manager, Digital Marketing

Obviousness Obviates Obfuscation

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Let me explain.

“There are two ways to build any system; either make it so complex that no defects are obvious, or so simple that there are no obvious defects.”

You dig? There are basically two approaches to systems creation; finding the simplest, most basic route and building outward in an organic way… Or the other way.

The other way is how most people get things done. You assess individual tasks on a requirement basis, and find solutions for individual problems. If you find that a set of solutions works toward the same, larger problem – you’re likely to bolt the solutions together, and call it a system.

The problem with systems is that they have cracks – all of them. Any set of solutions developed for specific problems and repurposed for larger problems is bound to be flawed – within the scope of the new problem. So what do we do? We patch. We band-aid things, add adjustments to compensate for the cracks, and call the mortar “polish” or somesuch. But it’s still flaws, all the way down.

How do we accommodate for this? We can’t necessarily redevelop solutions for every problem, there’s a lot of waste there.

Instead, I’d suggest we encourage publicness – build out from our cracks without hiding them. Allow for them, manage expectations instead of adding polish.

First step? Catch yourself, the next time you start polishing with phrases like “it’s not that simple,” or “there are reasons for this” – weasel words and obfuscations are polish, intended to hide the flaws in our haphazardly built systems. What we don’t realize is that haphazard is a pseudonym of organic in almost every instance.

If you can learn to recognize the polish for what it is, and allow the cracks to be obvious, you’ll stand a much better chance of recognizing when, how, and why things call through them.

On Being Definitive

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We love to categorize things, don’t we?

We call people beginners, novices, experts. Gurus. Knowledge Workers. The name-calling never ends.

Or worse – the lists!

5 Ways to Rule the World

9 Things Your Mother Never Taught You

3 Simple Ways to Get Rich by Noon Online

How many of these lists have we seen? Lots, right? How many have you written? If you’re a blogger, probably half as many as you’ve seen. How do you back them up?

Have you done everything on your list? By the time you had written the first and second ways to get rich online by noon – why, you must already have been rich! How did you go about list item three? Did you bootstrap it all over again, from zero? Why? That’s kind of silly, isn’t it?

Categorization can be really helpful – it provides a means by which we can communicate effectively by allowing us to speak in groups rather than reiterating lists many times over.

However, when you’re giving advice online – or in any other public arena – please, make sure the list makes sense and isn’t recursive. Categorization and process are two very different things.

Image by Rob and Stephanie Levy.

CAUTION – Crisis Management Specialist

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Be aware:

Any tasks given that are past their due dates will be returned inordinately quickly, at a higher than expected quality.

Be warned:

Any tasks given without a sense of urgency, threat, or liability will be forgotten and summarily dismissed until their due date is perilously close.

Do you know anyone like this? I’m sure you do. We all do. Some of us are Crisis Specialists – it’s a really bad habit to have. Being constantly inn the grip of reaction is a poor way to get things done – for most of us.

Most people think of “proactivity” the way they do other personality traits, as a quality. You have it or you don’t. I (and most emotional intelligence tools) disagree with that kind of formulaic typing. I see proactivity as a sliding scale, with four points on it something like this:

  • Strategic
  • Proactive
  • Reactive
  • Reflexive

A few people are consistently strategic – they have a plan, they always have a plan, and if something doesn’t fit into it – well, there’s a new plan just waiting in the back of their minds. These are the Leaders of the world.

Some people are blessed with a sense of permanent proactivity – they like to get things done, and they like them done as soon as possible, so they can move on to more fun things. I call these the Smart Slackers.

Other people, however, are stuck being reactive rather than proactive. They phone it in until they can’t avoid the work any more, and mostly end up failing because of [enter your own reason here]. Them? They’re the Real Slackers.

Everyone else – that dread one percent – they’re Crisis Management Specialists. There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a Crisis Management Specialist, you see them get work done all the time. Firefighters, Police – we assume these jobs are in the CMS category, and sometimes they are. In their case, it’s not a bad thing.

But in your business, it probably is. Marketers, SEO, bloggers – being purely reactive, living without a plan, waiting for the next opportunity to play hero by demonstrating extraordinary timeliness… these are not Superhero traits for these jobs.

It’s better if you realize that falling behind is nothing more than falling behind, and find a way to get ahead instead. Otherwise, you’ll always be managing crises, and are far less likely to manage success.

On Realizing Too Late

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I’ve often been accused of having a carriage wit.

The first time I was told this, it took me a while to get it – which is the very soul of irony – but it’s correct. Carriage wit is the kind of humour that occurs to you “on the carriage ride home,” rather than in the moment. As I very rarely manage to come up with sharp retorts to jokes, especially when I’m trying, I’ve learned to compensate by way of attitude.

A lack of response – whether actual or perceived – is one of the few surefire ways to destroy a conversation. Any response, even a bad one, is often better than dead air. We all experience the dead air problem sometimes, some of us more than others. One of the first steps to avoiding them is recognising first how they arise.

You can bet you’re headed to an opportunity for dead space if you…

… Notice that you’re focusing on an outcome without knowing the mechanics needed to get there. Outcomes are great – but if the outcome is “crossing the ocean” and you haven’t decided you need a boat, there’s a problem.

… Find out that your audience has a deeper expertise than you do. This happens all the time; we make declarations and get shot down.

… Continually change focus to the new hotness, instead of sticking with what’s known to work. Adding new tools to your shed doesn’t have to mean kicking the old ones out.

… Think the highway to success is the destination itself. Because that’s just silly.

… Mistake the wall you’re closing in on for your original goal. Few things are quite so disastrous as failing to change course when obstacles loom.

So how can we avoid these pitfalls? Well, I’m sure there are those of you with deeper experience on this, as well as those with a history of course correction. I’ll gladly invite your input, as we can all learn from each other.

However, I’ve found that…

… Learning to operate with the assumption that you’re missing information can be beneficial. Just don’t let it become a function of lower confidence.

… Learning to ask questions – even the ones we think are silly – is essential.

… And, following up any perceived loose ends is a surefire way to keep them from unravelling.

So many problems are better dealt with up front. By the time something’s become an obvious issue, the effort needed to recover from it is so much larger – and the stakes so much higher – than they ever could be as an awkward request for confirmation.

Image by Don O’Brien.