How simplification built organisational resilience at L’Oréal
"It was clear to me that we’d overcomplicated our work," says the cosmetics giants health and safety chief.
Before the Covid-19 crisis, many of us in business were engaged in a debate about simplification.
Life at work had just become far too complicated. Our people were overwhelmed by increasing organisational complexity, information overload and a 24/7, always-on work culture. Businesses had over-engineered themselves with layer upon layer of process and policy.
Perhaps like a force of nature, this growth in the complexity of organisations was inevitable. It happened naturally and incrementally as we managers continually sought solutions for a dynamic environment. But we were giving our people too much to think about and we were stressing them out.
