Progress via Negativa (The Beauty of Simplicity)

Most teams and organizations crave improvement. Improvement in how they create value. Improvement in the value they create. Greater efficiency. Greater effectiveness. Greater predictability. A way to find the balance where people create value for customers while being happy and working at a sustainable pace. Improvement can be attained in two ways. Progress by addition, and, of course, progress by subtraction.

The Latin phrase via negativa means “by way of negation.” This refers to a way of thinking focussing on what to avoid, rather than what to do.

Most folks are familiar with progress via addition. If something is not working, let's introduce a new process or technique to improve it. With each new problem to solve, let us add a new element to solve it. It feels natural. New problems must require new solutions. Over time, we can make our methods, frameworks, and strategies increasingly complex so that we have a library of solutions to all our problems (see: SAFe).

What if…we went a different route?

Hit The Road, Jack!

For the past twenty years, I have used my phone more for listening to music than for talking to people. I am not an Apple user. In 2016, I watched bemusedly as Apple removed the headphone jack from iPhone 7. Apple made a decision that users discussed for days. It was controversial. It was derided. It was brave.

Apple was trying to solve multiple problems. They wanted to improve the cameras, battery, and other components of the phone. This required space to be available inside the phone. iPhone 7, where the headphone jack was removed, was the same size as the iPhone but had an improved front camera, a 25% brighter screen, and two more hours of battery life. All this without increasing the size of the phone. They were able to do this largely because the headphone jack had been removed. Removing the jack also made the phone more water resistant as there was one less port where water could get in. This also allowed Apple to further its accessories business, which many argue was the whole point of removing the headphone jack.

Apple made progress, not by adding a new feature, but by removing an existing, outdated one. Improvement and progress via negativa. They were able to focus on improving other aspects of their product, by deleting a part of their product. If Apple kept adding new things, iPhones would start to look like office printers. As a company, Apple has always had this in their DNA — make things simple.

From Products to Processes

The same concept of progress via negativa that applies to products, applies to processes. Take a step back. Look at how things get done. Map out the process. The problem, more often than not, is that the process is too bloated. What are some things we can remove instead of adding things to an already bloated process? What is it that is getting in the way of delivering value?

If we have an inkling that we can improve. Our first instinct should be to look for what we can remove. This is especially true if we, at some point, wholesale adopted a framework. Let us start with a simple example. Say we started using Scrum a few years ago. We found that adding refinement meetings before Sprint Planning helped our planning go much more smoothly. Over time, we got better at both refinement and planning. We get to the point that Sprint Planning feels like an extra meeting to review what we just refined in refinement. It might be a good idea to remove one of these meetings since they might involve the same people looking at the same work. Simplify the process instead of looking for reasons to maintain the status quo.

Another example. We have been doing Scrum for a bit, and things are going well. We tend to get things done, but the team is repeatedly interrupted by customer requests that are more important than the work planned for the Sprint. This causes the team to miss their Sprint Goal, but in hindsight the most important work is getting done. A way to improve this via negativa would be to remove the concept of Sprints. Work in a just-in-time fashion. The only reason we are missing the Sprint Goal is because we are creating one. If, at the end of the day, the most important work is getting done in a timely fashion and customers are happy — Let us remove the extra stress on the team by eliminating the idea of Sprints.

The same idea applies to SAFe — If the plans from PI planning get nullified a couple of weeks in, maybe removing PI planning is an option. In Kanban, if column WIP limits are creating anti-patterns of people sticking to their columns, replacing the multiple WIP Limits with a single board-wide WIP limit is a simplifying option.

The Team Knows

The team always knows a simpler path. Ask them — How would you work if you all had complete freedom? What are some things that you do today that you would discontinue? Most importantly — What takes time and gets in the way of getting work done? Maybe the options they come up with are not complete discontinuation but simpler replacements. We could replace Code Reviews with pairing. Replacing a drawn-out process with simple active collaboration.

Overcoming the Natural Bias

Humans have a natural bias to add rather than remove things. Whenever we think of improvement, we default to adding. Our product will be better if we add feature X. Our process will be better if we add practice Y. Our minds are always looking for things to add. We are always looking for something new to include.

This natural bias is what leads to products and processes that look like office printers. We, on the other hand, need to reduce complexity. We need to look at what to remove. How do we remove everything that is unnecessary? Maybe, at times, even remove things that are necessary to discover how necessary they really are. Make progress via negativa.

That quest for greater efficiency, effectiveness, and predictability can be achieved with greater simplicity.