20 Ways to Make Matters More Complicated

Twenty common ways in which people make matters more complicated than need be:

1. Mistaking the rigid for the flexible and the flexible for the rigid.
2. Thinking that their organization rewards Behavior A when it really rewards Behavior B.
3. Believing that solutions don't have an expiration date.
4. Assuming that their perspective is the common one.
5. Seeking perfection.
6. Making unnecessary enemies.
7. Believing they have time for nonessentials.
8. Failing to communicate values and assumptions.
9. Regarding caution as a form of cowardice.
10. Falling in love with a strategy.
11. Thinking they are too good/big/smart to fail.
12. Omitting practice.
13. Letting ego block reality.
14. Rushing to judgment.
15. Emphasizing results more than efforts.
16. Caring too little or too much.
17. Choosing the wrong team members.
18. Underestimating the competition.
19. Failing to "go see."
20. Refusing to ask for help.

[Photo by Scott Walsh at Unsplash]