Extra Points: Simple & Complicated

This coming week, my daughters and I are heading over to nearby University Place (near Tacoma) to watch the Unites States Open being held at Chambers Bay Golf Course. It’s the first time our national championship has been held in the Pacific Northwest. Since the US Open always falls on Father’s Day weekend, my daughters and I have always watched it together. When it was announced that it would be held near us many years ago, we made a commitment to go. It’s hard to believe that day has come!

Chambers Bay is unlike any golf course many of these pros are used to playing. There is an unpredictability due to landscape, hole locations, and even par changes daily on certain holes. For as much discussion as there has been around that complexity, I heard one former pro turned analyst say, “In the end, the person that wins will have done so because they kept it simple. You have to focus on the fact that it’s still just golf.”

Turning complex into simple sounds simple, but it’s more complex than that. It’s truly a mindset. The analyst discussed the focus on the ball and the hole, rather than on the surroundings and distractions. In our careers, it’s very easy to focus on our own surroundings and distractions to the detriment on what we should be focusing on. That distraction causes us to make complicated what should be simple.

This week, identify what is simple about your work, your marketing, your messaging, and your outcomes. Then turn your focus on keeping it simple, so you can keep putting for birdies rather than bogeys.

© 2015 Toro Consulting Inc. All Rights Reserved