Overcomplication Culprit #7- Culture and Social Norms

 

As we wrap up our look at Pillar 1 of the Paint It Red Philosophy, it’s time to confront one of the most pervasive yet rarely challenged drivers of overcomplication: culture and social norms.

We often think of overcomplication as a personal or organizational habit. But much of it is deeply rooted in how we’ve been conditioned to think, act, and make decisions. Culture, whether in a company, a profession, or a society: creates expectations. And those expectations can quietly pressure us into behaviors.

Breaking Through: Smarter Strategies for Everyday Decisions

Audio Book and E-Book: May 15th. Click Here

Tradition and the Fear of Deviating

Many of the systems we follow today weren’t created with efficiency in mind. They were built to reflect status, history, or a desire to follow a well-worn path. People keep doing things “the way they’ve always been done,” not because those ways work best, but because they feel safer. Challenging tradition can feel like swimming upstream. So instead of changing course, we double down. We build processes on top of outdated ones. We follow rituals no one questions. We normalize the unnecessary.

Social Proof and Appearances

There’s also the weight of appearances. In many organizations, complex presentations, long emails, and layered procedures are seen as signs of competence. People assume that if something is hard to understand, it must be important. This creates a performance loop where we feel pressure to show how much we’ve thought through.  How many angles we’ve covered and how many tools or frameworks we’ve applied. It’s not about solving problems. It’s about looking the part.

Unspoken Rules That Add Noise

In certain industries, complexity becomes a badge of honor. People are praised for how much they can juggle or how long they can stay in meetings. They’re indicators that culture has mistaken motion for momentum.

Leaders often feel this most acutely. A direct answer might be judged as reckless. A quick decision could seem rash. These decisions are rarely questioned, because the culture reinforces the idea that more steps equal better results.

Breaking the Pattern

Overcomplication fueled by cultural and social norms is one of the hardest patterns to break because it’s not always visible. It’s built into the fabric of how we work and interact. It’s found in phrases like “that’s how we’ve always done it,” “let’s not rock the boat,” or “what will they think if we try something different?”

So much of what we accept as normal is never questioned. Like the way we look at a half-filled glass. Some see it as half full. Others, half empty. But here’s the better question: Why is the glass so big in the first place? Maybe the real problem isn’t the amount of water or our mindset toward it, but the oversized expectations we’ve inherited. Culture often hands us oversized glasses like standards, traditions, and norms that demand more than what’s actually needed. When we stop trying to fill someone else’s idea of what’s enough, we can start focusing on what actually works for the situation in front of us.

Chris Ortiz. Author of Breaking Through