Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World - Hardcover

Sull, Donald; Eisenhardt, Kathleen M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0544409906 ISBN 13: 9780544409903

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015

Synopsis

HOW SIMPLICITY TRUMPS COMPLEXITY IN NATURE, BUSINESS, AND LIFE
 
Complexity surrounds us. We have too much email, juggle multiple remotes, and hack through thickets of regulations from phone contracts to health plans. But complexity isn’t destiny. Sull and Eisenhardt argue there’s a better way. By developing a few simple yet effective rules, people can best even the most complex problems.
 
In Simple Rules, Sull and Eisenhardt masterfully challenge how we think about complexity and offer a new lens on how to cope. They take us on a surprising tour of what simple rules are, where they come from, and why they work. The authors illustrate the six kinds o f rules that really matter - for helping artists find creativity and the Federal Reserve set interest rates, for keeping birds on track and Zipcar members organized, and for how insomniacs can sleep and mountain climbers stay safe.
 
Drawing on rigorous research and riveting stories, the authors ingeniously find insights in unexpected places, from the way Tina Fey codified her experience at Saturday Night Live into rules for producing 30 Rock (rule five: never tell a crazy person he’s crazy) to burglars’ rules for robbery (“avoid houses with a car parked outside”) to Japanese engineers mimicking the rules of slime molds to optimize Tokyo’s rail system. The authors offer fresh information and practical tips on fixing old rules and learning new ones.
 
Whether you’re struggling with information overload, pursuing opportunities with limited resources, or just trying to change your bad habits, Simple Rules provides powerful insight into how and why simplicity tames complexity.
 

About this title

About the Authors

DONALD SULL is a global expert on strategy and execution in turbulent markets. He is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and was formerly a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School, where he won three teaching awards. He earned his bachelor's, master's, and doctorate from Harvard University. He has published three award-winning books, ten best-selling Harvard Business Review articles, and over one hundred case studies, articles, and book chapters on strategy and execution in turbulent markets. The Economist identified his theory of active inertia as an idea that shaped business management over the past century and Fortune listed him among the ten new management gurus.

KATHLEEN M. EISENHARDT is the S. W. Ascherman Professor of Strategy at Stanford, a highly cited author, and the co-director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Her research focuses on strategy, strategic decision making, and organizational design in highly uncertain markets. She is the coauthor of Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos, winner of the George R. Terry Book Award. A fellow of the World Economic Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative, she is also the first author featured in Harvard Business Review’s On Point collections. She holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering, an M.S. in computer science, and a Ph.D. from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.  

From the Back Cover

The useful thread through this book is that the path towards understanding almost always leads us first through complexity. Indeed, it seems that the more we learn, the more complicated things become. But stick to it. Good science is hard. But good science simplifies. Good rules are simple rules. Clayton Christensen, professor, Harvard Business School

At last, a book offering an ingenious way to fight back against the relentless assault of complexity and its insidious spawning of untold confusions, costs, crashes, and calamities. Simple Rules offers an exciting framework for both understanding complexity and rendering it harmless. Whether you run an organization or are simply trying to survive modern life, this book is gold. Chris Anderson, TED curator

Simple Rules shows how a handful of thoughtful principles can not only sharpen the quality of your decisions, but also allow you to maintain latitude in your judgments and to see the richness of opportunity. We all deal with complexity now, and this book will show you how you can do more with less. Michael J. Mauboussin, head of global financial strategies, Credit Suisse

Our future will be increasingly complex, from accelerating technological change to global connectivity of federated teams. Simple Rules explains how we can manage to make meaningful progress in a world that exceeds human understanding. At DFJ, we use simple rules like invest in unique ideas to support breakout winners across multiple industries undergoing profound disruption. This is a harbinger of the information economy to come. Steve Jurvetson, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Sull and Eisenhardt have written the definitive playbook injecting sanity, creativity, and productivity into our workplaces and the other spheres of our lives. Simple Rules is brimming with clever and surprising tips, lovely stories, and compelling research that will help you spot unnecessary complexity, eliminate maddening frustration, make the right decisions faster, and have a whole lot more fun along way. Robert I. Sutton, best-selling author of The No Asshole Rule and coauthor of Scaling Up Excellence

From the Inside Flap

We struggle to manage complexity every day. We follow intricate diets, juggle multiple TV remotes, face too much data at work, and hack through thickets of regulation at tax time. Sull and Eisenhardt argue there's a better way: by developing a few simple rules, you can tackle even the most complex problems.

Simple rules are a hands-on tool to achieve our most pressing personal and professional objectives, from overcoming insomnia to becoming a smarter investor. Simple rules can help solve our most urgent social challenges, from setting interest rates at the Federal Reserve to protecting endangered marine wildlife.

Drawing on more than a decade of research, the authors provide a framework for developing and refining effective rules. They find insights in unexpected places, from how Tina Fey codified her Saturday Night Live experiences into rules for producing 30 Rock ( never tell a crazy person he s crazy ), to burglars rules for selecting targets ( avoid houses with a car parked outside ), to Japanese engineers using the foraging rules of slime molds to optimize Tokyo s rail system.

Whether you re struggling with information overload, pursuing opportunities with limited resources, or just trying to change your bad habits, Simple Rules provides a powerful approach to taming complexity.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0544409906
• ISBN 13: 9780544409903
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280