Have you noticed how your business, and the world it sits in, has become so much more complicated? We’ve seen more demands on governance; increased varieties of risk; higher volumes and velocity of data (but not necessarily ‘helpful information’); exponential growth of processes, systems and technologies; and more diverse, hybrid working practises.

Externally, irrespective of your business’s size, you’re dealing with economic volatility, more legislation and an increased frequency of geopolitical disruption. And, of course, all these factors apply to your customers too.

According to The Boston Consulting Group’s Complexity Index, “business complexity has increased sixfold in the past sixty years.” As if that’s not enough, “the number of structures, processes, committees, decision-making forums, and systems has increased by … thirty-five.”

This business ‘fog’ has a become a serious challenge for commercial leaders, like COOs, CROs and CCOs, when trying to focus on the critical job of growing revenues. There is evidence that leaders, in reaction, are responding with the development of equally complex plans and processes, often backed up by a plethora of initiatives. Given the development requirements associated with these richer plans and activities, the impact is often reflected in sluggish pipeline builds and underwhelming sales results.

It’s often hard to see the proverbial wood for the trees. The volume and range of internal and external dynamics at play can cause leaders to lose sight of the few critical disciplines required to achieve the goal of accelerating profitable revenues – the basic lifeline upon which all enterprises depend.

In support of my observations, I discovered a fascinating example where teams have successfully dealt with the distractions of complexity.

The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is a behemoth of an organisation made up of multiple entities, trusts and social enterprises. With a primary purpose of improving health and wellbeing, 15 years ago the leadership body had concerns about the levels of mortality and post operative complications occurring nationally. Across various trusts and public bodies there was an abundance of local ‘improvement plans’, but the one outstanding initiative that single-handedly reduced death rates and surgical complications by as much as one third was…a checklist! To be precise, The Surgical Safety Checklist.

The checklist is a simple tool designed to bring together highly qualified surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses in the operating theatre to confirm that critical safety measures are performed. Far from containing complex drug names and medical procedures described in Latin, the document contains such content along the lines: Do we have the right patient on the table?  Are we operating on the correct part of the body? Is the machinery on and working properly? You might say, truly back to basics.

The operating theatre is the most common site for adverse surgical incidents, with errors occurring in nearly 15% of all patients globally. Some international studies suggest that surgery may be responsible for up to 1 million deaths every year and an additional 7 million postoperative complications. The tool was officially launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) in June 2008 and has been mandated for use in the UK since 2009.

We might reflect on how many ‘surgical incidents’ occur across the front lines of our businesses while we’re busy juggling other apparently crucial activities. As equivalent ‘highly qualified surgeons’ commercial leaders shouldn’t be embarrassed to implement simple tools and processes within critical areas to ensure success. The checklist for accelerating revenue growth should focus on the following four topics:

1. Optimizing the Organization
2. Retaining and Growing Customers
3. Winning New Customers
4. Delivering Customer-Centric Leadership

The key is to refocus on the basic priorities and execute them flawlessly. It’s doing the basics brilliantly.