Magical Simplicity
I hosted a panel last night with a pretty impressive line-up: 3 people who between them have held 3 public company CEO roles, 10 public company Chair roles, 15+ other Board Director roles from global charities to the U.K. government. Oh, and one of them was literally a knight!
I won’t rehash the whole conversation but suffice to say I learnt a lot. I think the most striking takeaway for me was the extraordinary importance of simplicity in defining and executing a winning strategy.
The panellists talked about dealing with crises (2008, Covid, Black Swan events like a factory fire) and in all scenarios the message was clear: stay calm, communicate clearly and keep it simple.
It’s quite obvious, really, but hearing it from highly accomplished people like that hammered home how important it is to remember. Simplicity - and its bedfellow, clarity - enable speed of action and decisive execution.
I plan to take that forward and make sure I’m living it in my own life and work too.