I’ve been reading Gerry McGovern on web content management for years. He’s a leading advocate for maintaining a level of simplicity in intranets particularly. In a recent piece, he uses a strong analogy to restate a couple of the main principles of simplicity in practice:

• Complexity tends to self generate, largely as a ‘protection’ mechanism for inefficient operations and organizations.
• Conversely, simplicity requires a concerted and ongoing effort. It can only be achieved by constantly seeking out and eliminating complexity.

I thoroughly recommend Gerry’s other articles on the theme of simplicity. Although they focus on web content, his lessons have much broader application.