Sometimes all I do in work is state the obvious. I synthesise data, turn it into a story and the result is stating the obvious.
But this is what is necessary. People tend to ignore the obvious. It’s too obvious. If it is obvious, how could it be compelling? But sometimes ignoring the obvious means ignoring the simple thing that people need.
on Dec 21st, 2008 at 5:49 am
Occasionally I’ve given people books, and had them handed back to me one or two days later with a “That’s pretty much all obvious stuff, Des” type comment.
That always infuriates me. A well written book should make difficult concepts appear obvious. That is the purpose of explanation, making tricky things seem straight forward.
When I used to lecture I’d hear the same thing from students. “This is all pretty obvious”. I always took that as a compliment, as it meant I wasn’t introducing any complexity.
So, I’d say that by stating the obvious in work you’re adding a huge value to the team. Everyone gets the knowledge, and no one has any difficulty understanding it. That’s a good days work!
on Dec 22nd, 2008 at 2:36 am
Good stuff Des, I think there are two important things here:
1. Using “Design Thinking” to make the complex easy to understand.
2. Making sure people don’t get carried away with novelty features that follow a fad, rather than focusing on the basics first.