rube goldberg machine
Web definitions
A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately over-engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine
Sound like your strategic plan? Or your business, even?
Sometimes, we can get wrapped up in making our process as complex as humanly possible… when we’re really trying to achieve a simple result. And that’s true whether we’re creating a strategic plan or implementing it. We simply lose sight of what we’re trying to accomplish, and the unnecessary complexity creeps in.
Consider, for example, this amazing page-turning Rube Goldberg machine by Joseph Hersher:
“The Page Turner” – a Rube Goldberg machine by Joseph Herscher
While it’s a mesmerizing process to see on a video, it can be a bit painful to experience when you feel like your business has you trapped inside of a Rube Goldberg machine. And this typically takes two forms:
Two Hallmarks of a Rube Goldberg Business
- Deliberately over-engineered or overdone: For this one, check your strategic plans and mission statements. In business, we sometimes tend to over-inflate our work, because if it sounds and looks complex it must be good! (Not to mention worth that consultant’s big price tag!) But what does that complexity really bring to the success of your business? Is the 200-page plan actually used? Do team members actually know or relate to that mission statement chock full of “innovation” and “excellence”?
The Fix? Drop the pretense. Draw out the core elements of your strategic plan so your team can be on the same page. Describe your mission the way you’d explain it to your seven-year-old nephew. Drop the pretense and simply say what you really mean. I bet you’ll be amazed at the results!
- Performing a very simple task in a very complex fashion… usually involving a chain reaction: For this one, check your policy manuals. Do employees actually make up their own policies to bypass over-bloated and nonsensical ones on the books? Think about that page-turning video for a moment as a policy or procedure. (And I know there are procedures out there that feel just like that page-turning one!) If I needed to have a page turned, but I had to go through 87 separate processes or hoops before I could actually turn that page, I’d go crazy. Same thing if I had only one procedure I could follow to get a job done… even though there was a better, more efficient, easily implementable option right there! Procedures that are too rigid or specific can be as harmful as no procedures at all.
The Fix? Provide just enough structure to support success. Identify the core objectives, and the essential (or “minimum necessary”) protocols to get that objective met… and let go of the policies and procedures that weigh the system down or hold it back from thriving. After all, you could be living with that procedure a long, long time!
The Plus Side to a Rube Goldberg Business
Now, there are times where getting to wrap our minds around a complex challenge is darned exciting! Where play, exploration, and creativity are completely well served… and that’s where Rube Goldberg machines can shine.
In this music video, OK Go triggers a huge Rube Goldberg Machine that takes close to four minutes – and countless complex-yet-perfectly-timed actions – to achieve one ultimate action. And I gotta say: when it all comes together, it is a thing of beauty. (This video literally brings me to tears of joy every time I watch it.)
“This Too Shall Pass,” by OK Go
(Yep, just cried a bit watching it again just now!)
As business owners, we are also combining countless complex-yet-perfectly-timed actions to achieve our goals and objectives. What could be possible when we approached these goals and objectives with a bit of the wonder, joy and sheer delight that comes from experiencing the gamification of a process like an amazing Rube Goldberg machine? For ourselves… and for our teams? (After all, while I wasn’t part of the 60+ person team that spent months of man-hours putting that OK Go Rube Goldberg Machine together, every time I watch it I feel just as proud as if I had been a part of it all. I’m celebrating right along with them!)
So if we’re going to build Rube Goldberg machines in our businesses, let’s do it in such a way that the process is a challenge AND delight… and where we all cheer with joy and pride for our accomplishments as loudly as the OK Go team did for this one!
How could your business resemble a Rube Goldberg machine… or would you even want it to? Let me know in the comments below!
