Review of deComplify

[Jelani Trotter]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "deComplify" by Gary S. Michel.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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deComplify, by Gary S. Michel, is a book written from the author’s experiences in business. Simplify means when things are more complicated than they should be. So, deComplify is a roadmap on how to break down these complexities most businessmen may face in their business. Like Gary said, companies have 3 main objectives, which are to be a place customers would love to buy from, associates will like to work for, and investors will like to invest in. How can this be solved when sometimes most companies engage in what we call process or technical debt? Process or technical debt is one acquired from patching things up in the company instead of outwardly looking for groundbreaking solutions. One of the methods to break down these complexities well-explored in this book is the lean approach, which is used to simplify and eliminate waste. While some of the steps might be simple, it does not mean easy. At the center of the Lean approach is clarity. These are properly explained in the book.

Also, Gary talked about some things a leader should do while giving some real-life examples. Firstly, a leader should go and see where values for customers are being produced, which he called the Gemba walk. This will help the leader to see if the workers are doing well enough to fulfill the company’s rallying cry. Rallying cry is the main objective the company is working towards. By going on a Gemba walk, the leader gets to see what needs to be done, how things are working out, and if there's a need for a reality check towards the rallying cry. Secondly, there was the use of fresh eyes. That is, outsiders coming to see the workplace and pointing out things that associates and leaders of the company might have missed. Sometimes, this can be seen when new people are hired. This can only be effective if leaders actively listen to new hires or fresh eyes, which is another attribute of a leader: being able to actively listen and work on what they say or complain about. You can read this to learn more.

I love how the author tried to make most of the steps simple so that fellow leaders can relate and be able to work with this. Most of what he mentioned is what most people would overlook as nothing, and this will only make them lose potential associates, just like Gary did, and he learned from it. There is one thing mentioned that I liked and I've always heard people complain about, which is rewarding hard workers with more work. This is a very common mistake, as it only burns out those good workers while the rest are not being developed as well. This way, leaders would only scare people from doing their best. There is the part of the customers as well. A company should not only try to sell to them but also help them. This would help to establish a good, long-lasting relationship, and there will be a lot of retained customers.

There's nothing I disliked about this. It's short and simple to comprehend. There were real-life examples like Club Car and Trane used to talk extensively about the rallying cry. I found no errors whatsoever. It was perfectly edited. I have a criticism though, which is the chapters are filled with too many key points without proper demarcation, which might get the readers confused and information-overloaded. This does not affect my rating though. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. It can be well applied to today's business world. I recommend it to people looking forward to doing business someday and those people currently doing business. This is a good way to learn to lead and actually lead well.

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deComplify
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Joseph Phoebe]

Michel’s emphasis on the lean approach in deComplify isn’t just about cutting waste—it’s a call for relentless clarity in tackling process and technical debt, offering a practical yet profound way to transform convoluted business practices into streamlined, purpose-driven operations.