Good complexity vs. bad complexity
February 19th, 2010 | Published in Uncategorized
Many organizations have enemies within. Departments and divisions care only for themselves. They will introduce complexity that makes the organization as a whole more dependent on them. In fact, the way modern organizations are structured rewards bad complexity.
Examples of bad complexity can be seen everywhere. Marketers and communicators don’t care if they make a website more difficult to navigate once they can push their message. Programmers will add more features to a product, not because these features are needed, but because new features show that the programmers have been doing something. Legal people don’t want you to understand legal documents because that would diminish their importance.
Bad complexity creates dependence. Good complexity creates independence. One of the things the Web reflects is a movement away from the production of products to the delivery of services. In a world of production the thing itself often dominates, but in a world of service the satisfaction of the customer dominates. In other words, in a service- driven world, the measure of success is not what you have produced, but rather how satisfied your customer is.
Sure glad none of that goes on around here.