Complexity is one of the few costs organisations accept without ever approving
It doesn’t appear on a balance sheet. It rarely triggers a governance review. Yet it shows up every day in slower decisions, diluted accountability, and teams working harder to achieve less. By the time leaders recognise it, complexity is no longer something to address — it is embedded in how the organisation operates.
Complexity rarely arrives in a single moment. It accumulates gradually, through sensible decisions made at different points in time. A new system to close a reporting gap. A new role to manage growth. An additional process to reduce risk. Each choice makes sense in isolation. Together, they quietly reshape how work flows and how decisions are made.
How complexity quietly takes hold
Most organisational complexity is not the result of poor leadership. It is the natural by-product of growth, risk management, and adaptation.
As organisations scale, they respond to new demands by adding structure. Specialist roles are introduced. Approval paths lengthen. Governance forums multiply. Each addition solves a real problem at the time.
What is rarely done is subtraction. Structures and processes introduced for one stage of the organisation often remain long after the context has changed. Over time, complexity becomes cumulative rather than deliberate.
When coordination costs outweigh progress
One of the earliest signals of rising complexity is an increase in coordination cost.
Work that once moved quickly now requires alignment across more teams, systems, and decision-makers. Dependencies increase. Timelines stretch. Execution slows — not because effort declines, but because friction grows.
Teams stay busy. Activity remains high. But progress becomes uneven, and the organisation expends more energy to achieve the same outcomes.
Decision drag and diluted accountability
As complexity increases, decision-making deteriorates.
Decision rights blur. It becomes unclear who owns outcomes, who has authority to act, and where accountability ultimately sits. Decisions are escalated unnecessarily, delayed to avoid risk, or distributed across forums in ways that dilute responsibility.
Meetings increase as a substitute for clarity. What should be resolved through defined ownership becomes a collective discussion. Momentum erodes quietly.
Why governance must evolve, not expand
When leaders sense a loss of control, it is natural to turn to governance.
Additional reporting, frameworks, and approval processes are often introduced to improve visibility and manage risk. In many cases, this is appropriate and necessary. Governance plays an essential role in protecting the organisation and enabling informed decisions.
The challenge arises when governance expands without adjusting how decisions are made and owned. When reporting increases but accountability remains unclear, governance can unintentionally add friction rather than clarity. Teams spend more time explaining progress than advancing it.
Effective governance does not rely on volume. It relies on alignment. It works best when it reinforces clear decision ownership, supports timely judgement, and remains closely connected to execution.
Complexity is not the same as scale
Complexity is often confused with size, but the two are not the same.
Some of the highest-performing organisations operate at significant scale with remarkable clarity. The difference is not fewer challenges or simpler markets, but intentional design. These organisations are explicit about decision ownership, disciplined about structure, and willing to remove what no longer serves the strategy.
They treat simplicity as an asset to be protected, not a convenience to be sacrificed.
Simplicity as a leadership discipline
Reducing complexity is not an operational clean-up exercise. It is a leadership responsibility.
Simplicity requires leaders to question legacy structures, challenge inherited processes, and resist the instinct to add solutions instead of removing friction. It demands clear choices about what matters most — and the discipline to stop doing things that no longer contribute to outcomes.
This work is rarely comfortable. It involves trade-offs and difficult conversations. But it creates the conditions for speed, accountability, and focus.
The hidden tax on performance
In volatile environments, complexity acts as a hidden tax on performance.
It slows response to change. It weakens accountability. It increases execution cost without improving outcomes. Organisations that recognise and reduce complexity do more than become more efficient — they regain momentum.
By deliberately simplifying how decisions are made, how work flows, and how accountability is structured, leaders create organisations that can move with confidence rather than effort alone.