Leading Simply

© Jensen Group, 2015 Simplicity Project
Simplicity Toolkit
Leading
Simply
SAP has partnered with The Jensen Group, the premier expert on organizational simplicity
to provide you with some of their tools and insights
These documents are segmented into one of three areas of focus...
Research Organizational
and
Leadership
Simplicity
Personal and
Team
Simplicity

by Bill Jensen
The Jensen Group • 1 Franklin Place, Morristown, NJ 07960 • USA • 1 (973) 539-5070
email bill@simplerwork.com • http://www.simplerwork.com • twitter: @simpletonbill
All content developed by and intellectual property of the Jensen Group © copyright 2014-16, and should be attributed as such
ONE OF THE JENSEN GROUP’S FASTPAK SERIES:
TOOLS DESIGNED TO DELIVER LASTING RESULTS IN 5—10 MINUTE INCREMENTS
Leading
Simply

© The Jensen Group, 2014-16 Leading Simply
1 (973) 539-5070 www.simplerwork.com
Leading Simply
Everybody wants everything to be simpler! But do you have what it takes to lead your team, your department,
your division more simply? Do you know the difference between making things simpler for the company
and making things simpler for each individual under you? That’s what we’re about to focus on...
FastPak Tool Guarantee: This tool is guaranteed to get you through daily implementation challenges,
delivering lasting results in 5—10 minute increments.
And if you use this tool repeatedly, you can become a star go-to leader... Yes, simply by making things simpler!
This FastPak’s Strategy and Strength
Getting those on your team what they need to get work done
in a world of MoreBetterFaster.
Sometimes, even more important than getting everything right as a leader, is just getting the “Aha’s” you need
as well as a few simple Getting Started tips.
Use this tool and you’ll get you whatever you need to help your team...faster!
What FastPaks Can’t Do
Create world peace...
...or the workday equivalent thereof.
Let’s be realistic about what you can expect for just a few bucks, OK?!
2

3
THE NEW COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Simplicityis all about
powerThe power to do less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does
SIMPLER FOR WHOM?
COMPANY EXECUTIVES WORKFORCE CUSTOMERS
(Organizational Strategies, (All individuals in Company) (Products, Services, Processes
Processes, Culture, etc.) at Individual-Level, Not Market-Level)

© The Jensen Group, 2014-16 *Source: Jensen Group Ongoing Study, Search for a Simpler Way: Surveyed over 65,000 individuals, 20% Senior Execs, 45% Mid-Managers Leading Simply
POP QUIZ
Since simplicityis
the power to do less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does...
Which group consistently
gets the most attention
paid to simplifying things
for them?*
COMPANY
EXECUTIVES
WORKFORCE
CUSTOMERS
Which group consistently
gets the least attention
paid to simplifying things
for them?*
COMPANY
EXECUTIVES
WORKFORCE
CUSTOMERS
4

THE POWER TO DO LESS OF WHAT DOESN’T MATTER
Which group
consistently
gets the
most attention
paid to
simplifying things
for them?
EXECUTIVES
Which group
consistently
gets the
least attention
paid to
simplifying things
for them?
WORKFORCEX X
Consistently highest response in all different types of companies:
Between 77% to 100% stating “least attention”.
Even if one wishes to debate the “most attention” finding,
one finding is undeniable:
Of the four main stakeholder groups, our workforce believes they have
the least power to do less of what doesn’t matter...
That simplifying their workload, their to-do’s gets the least attention
Consistently highest response in all different types of companies:
Between 50% to 97% stating “most attention”.
Depending on the degree of customer focus within each company,
either Customers or the Company came up as next highest
5

6
Whythose simpler-for-whom results really matter...
Simplicity is about power
Most every executive we’ve met defines simplicity either as reduced costs (less steps, less waste, etc.) or as
more focused direction from above (along with greater obligation from those below to follow that direction.)
Wrong! Simplicity is all about power. The power to do less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does.
The problem is that most senior teams feel that what matters is only what they define as as what matters.
Well, guess what? The workforce isn’t buying that — at least not how in simplicity is presented to them.
Jensen Group research results point to a major gap: the workforce knows that simplicity is about power,
and they know that very little has changed in what power senior management is willing to share.
Simpler-for-Whom absolutely matters!
Think of it this way: Let’s say everybody agrees that a 500-mile highway is need of repair. Senior management makes
things simpler by laying out a prioritized plan for all 500 miles, allocated over the time it takes to complete the project.
That plan makes sense when the people in central planning are viewing the road from their aerial view. But at ground-
level, the people doing the work discover that 90% of the potholes are in the first 50 miles, and yet management allocated
resources and budgets evenly — 10% allocation for every 50 miles. See the problem? Ground-truth realities, discovered
by the people doing the actual work, are often quite different than centralized, controlled plans. In this case, simplicity for
execs was managing a predictable and controlled process. And simplicity for the people on the ground was to be able
to quickly change the process so they could easily get what they needed to do their job.
If you are going to lead simply, you need to embrace your workforce’s perspective
of the power they need to do more of what matters and less of what doesn’t

THE
PRIME DIRECTIVE
7
Respect 1440
1440 drives almost every single situation which calls for
leading simply and work smarter.
1440 is the number of minutes in a day.
Behind most every task, most every request: Getting it done NOW is still too late!
Far too many decisions and far too many tasks are driven not by strategies, plans or what’s right —
but by what can be done right away! Which means you must accept that...
Leading simply is rethinking how respect
is built into delegation
The number one behavior in business today:
Moving To Do’s from our plate and onto someone else’s.
Too little time, too many To Do’s, too few resources.... So what do you and most every leader and manager do?
We all try to move our To Do’s onto someone else’s plate! Which means many (if not most) of mid-managers’ and
frontline employees’ days are filled doing other people’s tasks. Leading simply is organizing and delegating
in ways that gives them more time to do their own To Do’s!
“Raise the bar” for how you define respect
We’re assuming that you’re already very respectful of others. Good. Great starting point. Now it’s time to build new views
into how you define and live-out respect for others. Since there are only 1440 minutes in every day, leading simply
means organizing and delegating and communicating in ways that free up more of each individual’s 1440.
Leading simply is respecting that time is among most everyone’s most precious assets, and must be treated that way.
THE
PRIME DIRECTIVE
RELATES TO YOU
TOO

A Starter Kit
Leading simply is less about having the right answers than it is
knowing the right questions to ask — and then truly paying attention
to what comes back
First: Get Your Fingernails Dirty
Most leaders have no idea how much effort it takes to use the tools and processes that supposedly make things
“simpler” for everyone. Spend a day, a half-day, an hour trying to use work-level tools and processes (like filling in
forms, following a mandated procedure step-by-step, etc.) If your company is like most, here’s what you’re likely to find:
• 61% of your team feel that their basic needs to do their job are not being met
• 67% of your team feel their tools and support aren’t as good as they need to be
• 88% of your team feel they need to guard their time, because they know the company usually wastes it
Truly internalize these Aha’s* as you then ask the following questions...
“What are the biggest barriers to your
doing great work for us?”
“What are your top three time-wasters?”
“What would make your work a lot simpler?”
ᕡ
ᕢ
ᕣ
OR...
8

9
Learning toLead Simply...
Take no more than five minutes every day to ask these questions...
• “What are your biggest barriers to doing great work with us?”
• “What are your top three time-wasters?”
• “What would make your work a lot simpler?”
Here’s what you’re likely to find...
Most of the fixes are not sexy, are very transactional,
everyday fundamentals, are commonsensical, and are
VERY critical to making work simpler
For example: The Jensen Group has found that the biggest barriers to people doing their best work are most often
the tools and support and management practices that are designed to help the company control and predict outcomes —
they help the company, but often act like brick walls stopping performers from doing their best....
And the top three time-wasters most often all revolve around communication — too much coming at people; too much
that is unclear and not useful; and feeling that they’ll be punished or derail their career if they miss even one thing
within the overload that’s coming at them...
Also, what would make the work force’s work a lot simpler is just as much thought and attention given to their needs as is
given to the company’s needs — a greater balance; as much user-centered design as there is corporate-centered design.
Dear Leader:
Leading simply is not brain surgery. It’s basic. It’s the Golden Rule. You know you can’t get your work done without
having your basic needs met. Same goes for every performer in your organization. Leading simply is treating every
performer’s 1440 minutes/day as if they were your minutes...working hard on their behalf to make sure not a minute
of their time is wasted...Respecting their 1440 by treating those precious minutes as if they’re your own
OR...

10
Learning toLead Simply...
Your most important Next Step...
Do what you can within your sphere of influence
Your team, your subordinates, your peers, and your boss all recognize that you can’t remove every barrier,
or rebuild all the tools and information flows or layers of bureaucracy. Nobody’s asking you to go beyond what
you can do. Just make sure you’ve done all that you can do to treat every performer’s 1440 as if that time was
your own.
So, for example, if corporate-supplied tools and processes are major barriers for your team, and you can’t change
much about them, sponsor a regular brainstorming session for the team to share best practices and shortcuts that
will save them time and energy, and decrease their frustrations.... If the team is becoming too overloaded with information
and communication, train them on how to use their judgment on what to pay attention to, and establish a culture within
the team that it’s OK not try to focus on everything.... And figure out what is within your sphere of influence that can
be redesigned to be more user-centered: meetings? reports and presentations to you? project assignments?
Leading simply is not about a set of best practices or To Do’s.
It’s a mindset — a commonsensical approach to leading others
that respects their time, their energy.
Leading simply gives those on your team
more power to do less of what doesn’t matter
and more of what does
OR...

11
Why This Tool Works
in helping you Lead Simply
Leadership is one of the most written-about topics, ever.
There is no ultimate leadership book or tip. Every idea adds another
layer to the canons of great leadership. What this FastPak does
is to get to the essence of leading simply and provide ways for you
to explore all those layers in chunks of five minutes or less.
The most critical outcomes from using this tool are the Aha’s
you will have about what it means to lead simply
Why Using This Tool is So Critical
This FastPak focuses you on what simplicity means
from the work force’s perspective.
Hopefully those Aha’s will be a part of each of your
leadership actions from now on

Measuring Success
in Leading Simply
Obviously, the ultimate measures are that everyone on your team is working smarter and it’s a lot EASIER for every
single performer to do their best! We may not be able to guarantee that 100% — (hey, sometimes everybody has to do
stuff just because we have to!) — but if you use this tool repeatedly, each time your team is in a situation that you believe
requires them to work smarter — here’s what we can guarantee within one to five uses of this tool...
Increased Efficiency and Effectiveness
Leading simply is all about getting a lot more done with a lot less effort — which is the ultimate measure of
working smarter, not harder!
Increased Alignment Between Everyone
On Your Team
Your use of this tool is guaranteed to put you, your team and everyone they impact “on the same page” faster with a lot
less effort — as far as agreeing on truly matters and what doesn’t, and as far as what unnecessary work can be dumped
so that you’re working smarter more often than working harder. Related and equally important: Increased ability to
manage and meet everyone’s expectations, especially your own!
Increasingly Viewed as the ‘Go To’ Leader
You will model working-smarter behaviors more often. Which only serves to make you more valuable when
working smarter and making everything simpler is required!
12

Because one FastPak can’t
solve for everything...
All in this FastPak comes from the Jensen Group’s ongoing two-decade study, Search for a Simpler Way,
as well as Bill Jensen’s best-seller, The Simplicity Survival Handbook.
There, you’ll find 32 ways to do less and accomplish more, such as:
How to delete 75% of your emails
How to go to fewer meetings and get more out of them
How to ignore most corporate communications
How to give executives less information and still keep them happy
How to deal with teammates who (unknowingly) pile it on
How to get the orientation you deserve
How to decide: Stay or go?
Another terrific resource is Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan
and Al Swistzler. We’re proud to recommend and showcase someone else’s work. This book delves into great detail
about conversations where (1) the stakes are high, (2) opinions vary, and (3) emotions run strong.
If your difficulties in saying No involve more than the transactions of getting stuff done — if there are deep
relationship issues between you and others — Crucial Conversations is the perfect follow-up to this FastPak.
The authors address three aspects of a crucial conversation: (1) managing our own style under stress,
(2) dialogue techniques, and (3) what to do after you’ve reached shared meaning.
At the core of the book is the theory of emotional intelligence, popularized by Daniel Goleman in his 1995 book.
Crucial Conversations notes that, when it comes to emotional intelligence, we are often at our worst in stressful
situations, and offers tools and tips to stop you from doing the things you know you shouldn’t!
13
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Amazon

ABOUT
Mr. Simplicity
THE BIO OF A SIMPLETON
Bill Jensen makes it easier to do great work.
He is today’s foremost expert on work complexity and cutting through clutter to what really matters.
Bill has spent the past two decades studying how work gets done. (Much of what he’s found horrifies him.)
He is an internationally-acclaimed author and speaker who is known for provocative ideas,
extremely useful content, and his passion for making it easier for everyone to work smarter.
His first book, Simplicity, was the Number 5 Leadership/Management book on Amazon in 2000.
His latest books — The Courage Within Us and Disrupt! Think Epic, Be Epic — reveal the secrets of
success through bold ideas and by unleashing your own greatness.
His next book is on the Future of Work
Bill is CEO of The Jensen Group, whose mission is: To make it easier to do great work.
Among the Jensen Group’s clients are Bank of America, GE, NASA, the US Navy SEALS,
BBC, Philips Lighting, Chevron, the government of Ontario, Pfizer, Merck, L’Oréal Italia,
Johnson&Johnson, Guangzhou China Development District, and the Swedish Post Office.
Bill's personal life fantasy is to bicycle around the globe via breweries.
•
•
•
1. Out of clutter, find simplicity
2. From discord, find harmony
3. In the middle of difficulty lies
opportunity
Albert Einstein
Three Rules of Work

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