Complexity is often unfinished thinking
We often mistake complexity for intelligence.
The longer the deck, the denser the language, the more elaborate the explanation, or the more effort it takes to follow, the more sophisticated it appears.
It happens everywhere, and I would argue, is fairly industry-agnostic. In classrooms, boardrooms, workshops, startups, agencies, and technical teams alike.
Yet in business, complexity often masks something else entirely: thinking that has not been made useful to other people.
Many capable businesses are actually much harder to buy from than they realise. They themselves make it harder. Certainly not because their products lack value, but because understanding that value requires too much effort.
Is complexity the same as competence?
A CEO once shared with me, “If someone needs 180 slides to explain their strategy, then they probably don’t have one.”
I’ve thought of this rather insightful line fairly often over the years, because it applies well beyond the strategy decks. It had me thinking a little more about the reasons behind this resistance to simplification. What is it that is so threatening?
Is it the fear of sounding basic? The fear of not covering every potential question?
Perhaps it is the belief that if it looks or sounds too simple, others will assume it was simple to create.
Bloated decks create the illusion of competence. Complexity can create the impression of depth. As if the sheer quantity and density of slides will guide the audience into quiet acceptance, while allowing uncertainty to remain unnoticed.
Simplicity, on the other hand, asks more of us. Asks us to be precise. Cut the ambiguity.
It exposes gaps in our thinking, inviting challenges and removing the comfort that comes with hiding behind volume or jargon.
Perhaps this is why so many people resist it.
There is this common fear that simplifying an idea means weakening it. That if we strip back the language, the technical specifications, or the evidence points, we also strip back the nuance, value or respectability. That is something sounds too straightforward, it risks sounding unsophisticated. Some ideas are genuinely complex, I get it.
The value of an idea, though, is not in how complex it sounds internally.
It is in whether it can travel.
Simplifying without losing substance
Simplicity does not mean dumbing things down.
A strong idea should be able to survive translation from expert to non-expert. From internal team to customer. From product creator to end user. From strategy document to action.
If it fails to do so, then the issue may not be the audience, but rather the idea itself.
We need to be able to extract meaning from an idea.
Take strategy, for example.
Many organisations describe strategy in language that sounds impressive but changes little. Phrases about integrated growth plans, synergies, touchpoints, innovation, optimised conversion pathways, acceleration. Terms broad enough to mean almost anything and specific enough to commit to nothing.
When you strip that back, you get something slightly more approachable.
We will grow by becoming easier to notice, easier to trust and easier to buy from.
Both aspirational, the second perhaps a little less grandiose. Also more memorable and usable.
The same happens in product messaging. A business may claim to be faster than everyone else. But faster at what, and why should the customer care?
Say instead that the same task can be completed in half the time, giving scientists more time to focus on discovery and less time delayed by workflow.
Businesses rarely have nothing valuable to say. On the contrary.
However, it is that they often stop one step too early. Describing the feature instead of translating that into value.
Describing the capability when they should be describing the consequence.
When “not ready” is a useful signal
“Not ready” is often mistaken for criticism. As though it signals incompetence, weakness, or failure. I would argue that in many cases, it simply signals that the thinking is not complete enough to be useful yet.
It signals that more thought is required, more refinement. Precision. A clearer understanding of what matters, for who, and why.
This applies to products, strategies, messaging, and decisions alike.
That isn’t a flaw in the process. That is the process.
Businesses often rush to launch what would benefit from a little more sharpening first. The market doesn’t reward what feels unfinished or unclear. It rewards what people can understand, trust, and act on.
If understanding requires too much effort, people rarely complain. They disengage, delay, or default to something much easier to grasp.
Customers rarely announce to you that your message is too dense or complicated. They simply move on. Teams will not say that the strategy seems too vague. They will simply interpret it differently. Opportunities rarely declare themselves lost. They simply fail to convert.
Strong ideas are rarely born fully formed. They are shaped through challenge, pressure, and reduction.
The challenge is rarely that something is too simple. It is that it was never understood well enough to be made simple.
When marketing in your organisation feels busy but not effective, you are not alone. There is usually a deeper challenge in how marketing is being understood.
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