When you choose a plan or a course of action to reach a goal, you are making a decision under uncertainty. Some plans work, some fail. One simple technique to reduce the risk that something goes wrong is to reduce the complexity of the plan.

The basic idea is: less complexity usually means less risk. The more elements a plan contains, the more chances there are for misunderstandings, delays, or failures. High complexity, by itself, often creates high risk.

You can think about complexity by looking at how many “things” are involved in your plan. These “things” include actors, relationships, steps, and actions. Actors are people, teams, systems, or organizations that are part of the plan. Relationships are the connections and dependencies between these actors or elements—who depends on whom, in what order, and for what. Steps are the distinct stages or phases in the plan. Actions are the concrete activities that must be carried out to move from one step to the next.

A high number of actors, relationships, steps, and actions means high complexity. High complexity, in turn, increases the chances that something will break or be forgotten. Simply counting these elements can already give you a feeling for how fragile a plan might be.

To reduce complexity, you can try to lower the number of things involved. Can fewer people or teams be responsible, with clearer ownership? Can some dependencies or handoffs be removed or simplified? Can two steps be merged, or one step removed, without losing what is essential? Can some actions be standardized or automated instead of handled as one-off tasks?

This can be done on several levels if necessary. On an overall level, you can simplify the main structure of the plan: fewer big phases, fewer parallel tracks, fewer top priorities. On a more detailed level, you can look at how sub-plans and workstreams interact and try to reduce unnecessary dependencies between them. On a very concrete level, you can simplify individual tasks and routines so they are easier to execute correctly.

There are situations where you cannot avoid complexity—for example, where regulations, safety, or many stakeholders impose real constraints. In such cases, the goal is not to remove complexity that is necessary, but to isolate it and manage it clearly, instead of spreading it everywhere in the plan.

If a plan feels risky or hard to control, start by looking at the number of actors, relationships, steps, and actions it contains. Ask yourself: where can I remove or merge something, and still reach the same goal? By deliberately reducing complexity, you often reduce risk—and make the plan easier to understand, execute, and adjust along the way.