When I graduated I took pride in the complexity of the subject I had graduated on.
Aligning autonomous teams in a scaling organisation.
My professor was less impressed.
He instilled in me that it was my job to simplify things.
Without losing the essence or its core.

After this advice I started as a strategy consultant.
For many years I took pride in my ability to handle complex abstract projects, software architectures, theories and corporate political dynamics.
It turned out I was wrong.

Because for all my love of complexity,
Once I noticed how other colleagues had the same tendency
And once I noticed how that complexity-tendency led to confused customers, stretched timelines and missed deals I realised my professor was right.

I view it as my task to simplify complex situations.
I still take pride in my ability to understand complex abstract projects, software architectures, theories and corporate political dynamics.
But I take even more pride in simplifying them down.
Evaluating the situation, and quickly coming to a set of actionable steps.
And a few questions to deeper explore.

I find that simplifying brings calmth and action to the teams I work in.
It helps us get things done.
Which in turn gives everyone a feeling of satisfaction.

Simplify.
Later more on how to do that.