How to use simplicity to drive success
A friend just sent me 10 wonderful quotes and I have cherry picked my favourite four that apply to clarity and simplicity.
They all contain powerful truths.
We all, I think, appreciate clarity and simplicity when we see it and can yet under estimate how hard it is to create.
Before I share four of these quotes, let me ask you a question:
What is your go-to strategy for finding clarity and simplicity in your work, especially your communication?
What works for you?
See if these help …
“In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power”
– Yval Noah Harar, historian and bestselling author of Saiens and Homo Deus
“Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest”.
– Leo Babauta, author and founder of Zen Habits
“When you are overwhelmed, the secret is to prioritize”
– Oprah Winfrey, media exec
“Complexity is seductive, but simplicity is powerful”.
– Tim Ferris, entrepreneur and best selling author of The 4-Hour Work Week
I hope that helps. More next week.
Kind regards,
Davina
PS – One of the fun things about the world we live in, is that this now friend of mine introduced himself once he heard we had moved to Seattle. He had been reading my newsletter for years and then emailed to say ‘welcome'.
Let me know if you are in Seattle area also. As the weather improves I am thinking of hosting a gathering.
Free Workshop: From Status Quo to Strategic Influence
My friend and colleague Christina Charenkova and I will discuss practical ways to get to the heart of what matters, engage your stakeholders, and build genuine support for your initiatives.
We'll share proven techniques that have helped executives save significant time while increasing their impact – from cutting document preparation time by 20% to creating updates that spark meaningful discussions rather than endless clarifications.
Whether you're leading a team through change or preparing Board papers, this conversation will help you communicate with clarity and purpose.
Join us to discover how to make your message resonate and drive results.
📅 Save the date: March 18 at 4PM PT / March 19 at 9AM AEST
Whenever you're ready, here are five other ways I can help you:
Elevate, the book – helps leaders set their teams up to set up a new dynamic across their team that will elevate everyone’s skills, helping the team get better, faster decisions.
Engage, the book – helps individual contributors prepare papers and presentations that leaders can approve without reworking.
Engage, the self-paced course – supports both individuals and leaders prepare more insightful papers and presentations for senior leaders and boards.
Extreme Clarity, the 2-hour workshop – introduces techniques for structuring your messaging.
Board Paper Bootcamp, the 2-week program – helps you clarify and convey complex ideas to senior leaders and boards.
WANT TO LISTEN?
- Risk Management = Change Management
- Richard Medcalf – Making Time for Strategy
- Baking Learning & Growth into BAU
- Helping Leaders ‘shift testing left' to derisk projects
- A Case Study in Digitial Transformation
- How to help a senior leader come back from a misstep
- How to hit the ground running in a big new role
- How to communicate during great change
- How to turbo charge your transformation
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PRESENTED BY DAVINA STANLEY
I love what I do.
I help senior leaders and their teams prepare high-quality papers and presentations in a fraction of the time.
This involves ‘nailing' the message that will quickly engage decision makers in the required outcome.
I leverage 25+ years' experience including
- learning structured thinking techniques at McKinsey in Hong Kong in the mid 1990s before coaching and training their teams globally as a freelancer for a further 15 years
- being approved to teach the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto in 2009
- helping CEOs, C-suite leaders and their reports deeply understand their stakeholder needs and communicate accordingly
- seeing leaders cut the number of times they review major papers by ~30% and teams cut the amount of time they take to prepare major papers by ~20%*
- watching senior meetings focus on substantive discussions and better decisions rather than trying to clarify the issue
My approach helps anyone who needs to engage senior leaders and Boards.
Recent clients include 7Eleven, KPMG, Mercer, Meta, Woolworths.
Learn more at www.clarityfirstprogram.com
(*) Numbers are based on 2023 client benchmarking results.
