Simple growth (or decay) means that the same amount is taken from (or added to) the changing value at the end of each period.
For instance, a start value of 100 at 5%
To simple growth 5% of 100 (=5) has to be added on each period, the result are 100, 110, 120, 125, 130, 135, etc.
Compound growth (or decay) means a different amount is taken from (or added to) the changing value at the end of each period.
To compound growth the value is 100, the next value has to be found by adding on 5% of 110.
So the sequence of changing values are 100, 110.25, 115.76, 127.63, 134.01, 140.71 etc.