Keeping it simple…
Back in the 70’s
Brian Clough was the football manager at Nottingham Forest. He took charge when the club were in the second division.
He went on to win promotion to the top division, which they won at the first attempt. Little Nottingham Forest then went on to win the European Cup (now the Champions League), not once but twice. Forest were the best team in Europe.
John McGovern played for Clough and was a fast and exciting dribbler of the ball. At training one day, Clough instructed McGovern to dribble a ball to a corner post and back as fast as he possibly could.
McGovern skilfully did so at an impressive speed. Clough then instructed McGovern to run to the post and back, as fast as he could, this time without the ball.
Young John did so - but didn’t understand the point and so did as he was asked.
“Now John, which was faster, running with the ball or without it?” Clough asked.
“Without, of course”.
“Right,” said Clough. “That’s how I want you to play. Pass the ball, don’t dribble it and run. Because the ball gets forward much quicker than you.”
It was a simple lesson. But it stuck, not because it had been said, but because it had been demonstrated.
Clough liked to keep things simple - so that everyone could understand. Simple ideas stick in the mind. Clever people are aware of that. They know to get to simple they have to get beyond complicated.
Steve Jobs is another example. He created the ultimate simple gadget. There is, of course, enormous complexity behind an iPad - but for the user, it’s simple.
So, at Hub we take these lessons and apply them to how we go about things in our industry.
We’re aware that our clients don’t understand or care for jargon. Instead, they want to know how quickly we can attend a property and get a boiler back up and running or repair a socket.
They want to pass on a problem, and find we have a quick solution.
They don’t want to be nervous about how much an invoice will be - they’d much more prefer to know in advance. So we do that.
Nor do they want to wait for reports or estimates to arrive and have to check their inboxes every five minutes. They’d prefer to quickly and simply log in to our clients online portal and see for themselves how a job is progressing or retrieve certificates and quotes - at their leisure.
They want to be able to fire over an instruction or book a slot in an engineers’ diary, and leave the rest to us.
And when they read any communication, they want the information to be clear and concise and easy to grasp the details. No waffle. No jargon. Just facts.
It’s simple. And simple is easier and better for everyone.