Why do we sometimes make things so complicated?

Servinomy: 16/09/2026

In organisations, departments often use different terms. Specialists create their own language. It seems there is an acronym or complicated term for almost every problem. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Professional terminology can be incredibly useful. When people work with the same subject every day, a few words can sometimes replace an entire explanation. But there is a downside. 

When someone doesn't understand the language, a barrier forms. You need to understand what someone is saying before you can grasp what they truly mean. That's where communication can become unnecessarily complicated.

Research into cognitive load shows that our mental processing capacity is limited. Unnecessary complexity can therefore consume capacity that we would rather use actually to understand the information.

It may seem obvious, but let's examine how we communicate within organisations. We often say things like, "We need to optimise end-to-end synergy between stakeholders," when what we really mean is, "Let's work together to improve this." Similarly, we might state, "We need to allocate our resources more efficiently," when all we really need to express is, "We have too much work and not enough people."

The difference is not just in the words. The difference is in who gets to take part in the conversation. The more complicated our language becomes, the more likely people are to disengage, make assumptions, or stop asking what something means. And that can get in the way of collaboration.

That is why I increasingly believe in a simple rule: Say what you mean.

Use words everyone can understand. Not because people cannot handle complex subjects. But because good communication makes complex subjects easier for others to understand.

Simplicity is not a lack of professionalism. It is the ability to explain something complicated in a way that enables others to do something with it.

Less jargon. Less distance. More understanding. More people able to contribute. Better collaboration.

Instead of asking, "How professional does this sound?" we should ask, "Will the other person understand my meaning?"

Scientific basis: research into Cognitive Load Theory describes how the limited capacity of working memory is affected by the complexity and presentation of information. See, among others, Sweller, van Merriënboer & Paas (2019), "Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later".