Keep it simple, stupid.

There is a quiet intelligence surrounding simplicity. It doesn’t demand attention but it gets it nonetheless.

Less is more. Less to see. Less to think about.

It requires nothing of you. No effort at all.

We like the simplicity of beautiful minimalist-designed interiors that no family could live in — or the serene and empty lives of mountaintop monks who wouldn’t know a TikTok from a Tic Tac.

We like these things because they are uncluttered. Unspoilt. Uncomplicated.

But these things aren’t part of real life. They are not representative of the world the rest of us live in.

For the vast majority of us, all these things represent utopian fantasies that none of us normal folk will experience ourselves.

Yet we’re drawn to them nonetheless because we love the easy life.

I understand that keeping things simple is alluring, but it means ignoring everything else. That may be fine for lifestyle choices, but it’s a pure distraction for business choices.

Unfortunately, the world is incredibly complex. And complex things can’t be simplified.

You will not change the state of something by tackling it from one angle.

What I’m referring to is oversimplification. And nowhere oversimplifies more than LinkedIn. The home of dumbing things down for easy-to-understand digestible content. The exec summary if The Dude were Chairman of the Board.

LinkedIn is for strategic advice as Friends was for comedy. A feel-good make-believe fantasy of a time that never was. Nothing offensive. Nothing challenging. Just exactly what you want to hear when you don’t want to feel uncomfortable.

It is awash with survivorship-biased case studies. All the greatest hits are accounted for, played on repeat like music droning in an asylum. Valium for the unthinking. Don’t forget to hit the ‘Insightful’ button to show you appreciate that warm fuzzy feeling.

I’m a little tired of this oversimplification though. Not because I don’t enjoy being numb to the relentless complexity of the outside world. I have yoga for that these days. No, because it’s sending so many people in the industry down paths that won’t help the businesses they’re making decisions for. Wasting their time and other people’s money.

What they should be looking for instead is focus, not simplicity.

There’s an enormous difference between simplifying and focusing. While simplifying ignores everything else in favour of a rose-tinted glasses view of the world, focus requires acknowledging the complexity of the systems and forces at play and deciding where to focus effort. That is a strategic choice and something that requires time, energy and thought.

None of these case studies consider the conditions at the time, nor the myriad of other choices that were not taken. I appreciate that success stories serve to excite people, but it is like the inspirational workshop materials have escaped the lab.

I’d like to start a rallying cry for embracing complexity and shunning oversimplification once and for all. For questioning the dumbed-down content we see across LinkedIn and in the trade press. We aren’t idiots, are we? I think we can handle a bit of nuance and be better for it. And I’m quite sure we can see through the thin veneer of content designed for engagement or to promote whatever ‘Top Voice’ the algorithm favours this week.

If business success has become a popularity contest run by algothyms then let’s join the monks already, because we’re done.

It has always been important for us as an industry to remain focused on our purpose as partners to our clients. To be the Consigliere for well-thought-through decision-making. To surgically apply pressure through strategic and creative choices at the points that draw out the maximum impact. That is an incredibly difficult and complex thing to get right. It’s hard. Let’s be clear, we exist as an industry to focus people around choices, and nothing about that is simple.

The trust we earn along the way is from visibly showing an understanding of the complexity of our client’s day-to-day reality. In chaperoning them on the path to making choices within the hurricane of indecision. We become their sword and shield.

But the ultimate cost of failure is jobs. Let’s not pretend otherwise. Whether it’s their job for failing to drive the change their business needs, or our jobs for failing to do the same, the net result of failure is death. Figurately speaking, of course.

If you really want to understand how successful businesses achieved the things they did, then read the autobiographies of their founders. Watch their speeches. Study their annual reports. Do the work for yourself. Make it part of your focus to properly unpick the complex things that by hook or by crook, got them over the line.

But for the love of God, don’t waste your time listening to people who had absolutely no part to play in these decisions, who try to put in soundbites on LinkedIn outcomes that took years or decades to bring about. Trust the people who actually made those decisions in the first place.

And if you spot a clout-seeking post on LinkedIn from someone who didn’t work on the thing they’re simplifying, ignore it and get back to focusing on the realities your business is facing today. Your aim should be to one day have all of your hard work dumbed down on LinkedIn by someone missing half the picture.