Nowadays, million dollar contests seem to be popping up everywhere. Whether answering trivia, surviving the great outdoors, or even completing silly games,victors can earn major prizes. For one recent winner however, path to victory has led to controversy.

Sue Compton of Delanco, NJ, entered the annual Pillsbury Bake-off with her Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups recipe. Her creation, however, is based on sticking ready-to-bake cookie dough into paper muffin cups.

Delightful and delectable, these tiny desserts wowed the judges, leaving her $1 million dollars richer. Yet in a story on slashfood.com, other contestants and observers felt her recipe was not deserving of the honor:

This is a very clever use of ingredients and tasty, but the million dollar winner? I am sorry, but I remember when contestants had to actually come up with a real recipe that they then had to make from scratch…This almost seems like cheating to me

…

I am sorry to see a recipe awarded such a prize for doing nothing. What has happened to cooking? A small child could create this terrible thing.

We are often quick to judge value based on complexity. A luscious dessert which requires many steps, unusual ingredients and delicate execution is easy to revere. But shouldn’t we be more impressed by a tasty treat which is is also easy to make?

To fairly evaluate any procedure, we should not consider the level of difficulty as a key variable. Instead, what matters most is the overall quality of the process and the product. For Ms. Compton, her simple, yet creative recipe embraced both criteria. Not only is her confection delicious, it’s also a cinch for even the novice chef and quick enough to whip up in less than an hour. Who can complain about that?

To actually complete work in an effective and efficient way while avoiding over-complication is as much of an art form as baking. It takes time, patience, trial and error to reach an ideal level of expectation. So, creating and partaking in a simplistic process hardly makes a person an amateur. On the contrary, when utilized correctly, the approach can signify a high level of expertise; a position that comes only from experience.

As The Methodology Blog has covered before, working hard does not necessarily mean you’re working smart. If over-complicated processes at work are baking your brain, contact Slaughter Development today. We can help simplify your processes while still achieving a successful outcome. Most importantly however, we’ll help you to pursue an even greater goal: process improvement.  Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too?

❖ ❖ ❖