The Complexity Trap: When Simple Solutions Meet Unnecessary Friction

I've been thinking lately about how often straightforward requests get tangled up in bureaucratic webs. The scenario: you need something reasonable, you've done your homework, you present a clear case, and somehow it becomes a whole production.

It happens to me often. I needed to streamline some work systems that create genuine challenges for my executive functioning as an autistic person. I research the relevant guidelines, make sure I understood the compliance requirements, and present what seems like a simple solution that creates no hardship for the person, if anything, it helps make their lives easier. Instead of a quick "sounds good" or even reasonable questions, I get a maze of manufactured concerns and promises to "call experts" about things that are already clearly documented. This happens all the time, on repeat.

It got me wondering why this pattern is so common. Why do some people in leadership positions seem to instinctively complicate things that could be straightforward?

Maybe it's about feeling important. There's something about making someone wait, requiring additional steps, or bringing in outside opinions that can make the person with authority feel more... authoritative. Saying yes immediately doesn't create the same sense of being needed, or being in control.

I’ve also gotten where it's genuine anxiety about setting precedents. "If I agree to this, what's next?" This is an excuse that I hear often. Even when the request has clear boundaries and specific circumstances, there's this fear that accommodation equals chaos. Or again, loss of control, but no one wants to admit that’s what it is.

I've also noticed that when someone presents information that catches a decision-maker off guard, the response is often to complicate rather than simply say "I didn't know that, let me think about it." Creating additional hoops to jump through buys time while maintaining the appearance of being thorough. Even if you know more than the person in front of you, if they’re in a position of authority they almost always want to remind you that you’re not as knowledgeable, even if you are. One way or another they will create a maze of obstacles to maintain control.

The thing is, this approach has real costs. People stop bringing forward reasonable improvements. They work around problems instead of solving them. And honestly, it's exhausting to have every practical request become a negotiation.

The leaders I respect most are the ones who can distinguish between legitimate oversight and unnecessary friction. They ask good questions, they consider implications, they create room for growth, and they do the work they claim to do, but they don't create barriers just to demonstrate their authority all while being unable to acknowledge that it’s their ego getting in the way of something positive, something supportive, and something that literally has no impact on them but makes all of the difference in the world to the person “underneath” them.

I guess what gets me is how often the people who talk the most about being supportive and inclusive are the same ones who make reasonable accommodations feel like huge impositions and continuously find ways to make sure that accommodations stay unaccommodated. There's something to be said for leaders who make things easier, not harder, for the people they're supposed to be helping succeed.

Sometimes simple really is simple. And the best authority figures are the ones who recognize that.

Be well.