Natural, complicated, simple

The cricket writer Peter Roebuck committed suicide a few weeks ago in South Africa.  His death is rightly mourned by the legion fans of his astute and erudite writing.  As he taught English at my school and lived in the boarding house, despite being an especially mediocre cricketer I had quite a bit to do with him.

Of all the tributes that have been written my favourite is by Ed Smith, the former Kent and England player who writes for the times.  In it he recounts some advice Roebuck had written to him years before: -

A player goes through three stages - natural, complicated, simple - not many reach that last stage but the journey cannot be avoided

As ever cricket acts as a mirror to all of life.  As a consultant my job is to usher people and organisations to that final state and I've learned not to trust anyone who declares with relish that some process or situation is necessarily complicated.

I especially like the idea of an unavoidable journey to simplicity.