In one of the Indiana Jones movies, there’s a scene where our hero is confronted by an angry opponent. The man expertly swings his sword, going through all the gyrations of someone bent on carving the other into bite-sized pieces. Any sensible person would have turned tail and run, fast! Not Indy. We may never know why he did what he did, whether it was part of the script or because Harrison Ford had such a high fever he could hardly stand up. Jones’ solution was simple: He took his pistol from its holster and shot the sword-wielding culprit. 

 

Several hundred years before a man named Occam developed an idea that Aristotle also observed, and which Jones so aptly demonstrated: It is that the simplest explanation is usually the right one.

 

And before we dismiss it, we should give it as much consideration as any other possible solution. That’s because, we still have a penchant for making things more complicated than they need to be. And that being the case, we ought to recognise that that is the most likely outcome if we fail to take steps to avoid it. The more pieces and the more hoops, the more difficult it will be for anyone to do it or understand it.

 

Some people find it impossible to believe that the answer they’re looking for could be that simple. Conspiracy theory is based on this notion. Many are unable to accept the fact that events experienced by ordinary people can also play a part in the lives of those who are famous. Just think about all of the theories surrounding the events of Princess Diana’s death and 9/11. Think, too, of the extremes in the speculation of what happened to Malaysia’s flight MH 370. While all of these things were terrible tragedies, the truth of what caused them has turned out to be far simpler than many would have us believe.

 

Some people do recognise that explanations to problems or occurrences, quite often, are remarkably simple; however, lest those who offer them lose the advantage by allowing it to seem so, they then add a number of levels of complexity or use highfalutin words that no one but themselves can understand in order to build up their apparent expertise and mask the truth. 

 

In organisations, this is seen most often in reviews of past company performance or in the strategies they claim will bring them roaring success in the future. The end result is that a solution that could produce the desired results isn’t implemented at all because hardly anyone understands what to do.

 

Consider this example. In the hours before the D-Day landings on the French coast, a special group of men from the US 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment was dropped behind enemy lines. They were called Pathfinders, and their sole responsibility was to prepare a preselected area for the airborne invasion that would accompany the waterborne assault later that day.

 

You are the one that finds the way from the beginning to the end. You find the cheese, and then point everyone else to the easiest way to get to it. You don’t say to them, “Well I paid my dues, and so you have to do the same.” 

 

There are people like that. For some reason it bothers them that anyone should be able to obtain the reward they received without wading chest-deep through the same mosquito-ridden jungle that they did. True pathfinders don’t think like that. They know from the very beginning that it’s their job to prepare the way for others; to show others how to get to where they need to go and on dry ground.

 

That’s what you have to do. Find the easiest, cheapest, and quickest way to accomplish whatever you want to do, and then to point others to it. You may have to follow a lot of blind alleys to get there; however, once you find that magical route, it’s your job to direct everyone to it.

 

 

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