When tackling transformation projects, constraints are unavoidable.
We might feel limited in one area and abundant in another. Or more likely, constrained all around. With pressure to solve problems and meet ambitious goals with limited resources, yesterday.
Studies and sayings remind us that constraints can fuel creativity. But it can be easy to tell ourselves that a lack of time, money, people, or skills is preventing us from accomplishing our goals or translating our vision into reality.
Constraints become a burden.
But what if they were always an asset?
In their book “A Beautiful Constraint,” Adam Morgan and Mark Barden provide practical advice for not only dealing with constraints while creating solutions, but also leveraging them to achieve more than you originally imagined.
Here are a few of my favorite tips from the book that we can apply today.
1. Shift your relationship with constraints
First of all, the authors noticed that people tend to react to constraints in one of three ways: as a victim, neutralizer, or a transformer.
When faced with constraints, people with a “victim” mindset lower than ambitions. They might do less or pursue a smaller goal.
In contrast, “neutralizers” find ways to still meet their objective, by working around the constraint. They find other resources or paths to achieve the original goal.
However, “transformers” find ways to pursue more ambitious goals in the face of constraints. They see constraints as opportunities to take a step back and look at the landscape differently. And may even seek out constraints to prompt better ideas and evolve before they need to.
The authors stress that the three mindsets lie along a spectrum. When faced with a constraint, we could stop at the first or second levels, or pass through to the third. With practice, we can move more quickly from a victim to a transformer mindset.
You and your team are in a transformer state when you,
- Believe that it’s possible to achieve your goals in the face of this constraint
- Have confidence in your ability to get started even if the answer isn’t clear yet
- Feel motivated to solve this challenge or achieve your goal
So cultivate an optimistic mindset, learn problem-solving and design tools, and amp up the importance of taking action to address weaknesses in any of the three areas.
2. Illuminate and question what’s “given”
One of the first steps for dealing with constraints is calling attention to them.
That simple act can improve your outcomes. Naming limits helps clarify the problem you’re solving and focus your energy. Clarity can also reduce team conflict because team members are designing with the same boundaries, instead of defining their own individually.
Naming constraints can also help us question if they really are constraints.
Sometimes it seems like options are limited because “how things are done” is taken as a limit you need to work within. The people before us likely did the same thing, designing within the “constraints” of their own environment.
So we build upon layers of designs that might have been effective at one time, but no longer serve our current goals.
We can break out of this cycle by drawing attention to existing patterns and beliefs.
Which parts of the existing processes are currently necessary? No longer serving us? Could be changed? Think about processes, solutions, relationships, and how you measure success.
The set of solution options is likely not as rigid as it may initially appear.
3. Craft challenges that force new answers
To frame your quest for solutions, the authors suggest asking “propelling questions.” A propelling question combines an ambition with a constraint.
For example,
- How could we help millions of people, with a staff of 10?
- How could we convey important information to help the reader make a decision, on one page?
- How could we launch a high-quality product that customers love, in one month instead of six?
By baking the constraint into the design challenge, you’re not only forcing people to think differently in order to address it, but if you proactively set these challenges, you can delight customers before the unreasonable becomes the new expectation.
4. Embrace “can if”
With your propelling question in place, it’s time to start exploring how you could achieve that ambition.
It may be difficult to see a solution at first, so try using the structure “we can if…” to generate ideas.
The authors provided these prompts as examples,
- We can if we think of it as…
- We can if we use other people to…
- We can if we remove x to allow us to y…
- We can if we access the knowledge of…
- We can if we introduce a…
- We can if we substitute x for y…
- We can if we fund it by…
- We can if we mix together…
This structure helps us keep an open and optimistic mindset focused on solutions instead of problems. You may need to repeat the statement “we can if…” a few times before specific actions you can take right now will become apparent.
5. Consider access to (not just ownership of) resources
When working on complex challenges, the scope is always larger than what we can personally control. But we don’t always recognize how many resources already are or could available to us.
Identify the people and groups who are working toward similar goals, with different resources. And consider how the resources you do control could add value to others in new ways, in order to exchange resources and build mutually beneficial relationships.
6. Fuel the search for solutions with emotion
Emotions can motivate people to continually take action, even in the face of constraints. Or alternatively, cause them to burn out, give up, or coast.
The key is to balance negative and positive emotions. The authors cite a study suggesting that negative emotions can help with persistence and focus, while positive emotions help with creativity.
As leaders, we can drive change by alternating between an enticing picture of the future with the reality of today. If the team’s motivation wanes, consider turning to alternative words or stories to evoke stronger emotions and ratchet up the tension.
7. Make it a habit
Embed these practices into your ongoing routines. Call out constraints, ask propelling questions, and encourage “we can if…” in meetings and documents. Celebrate transformers and help people move from victim to neutralizer to transformer, by guiding them through one of the steps above.
Constraints are not going anywhere. But the specific constraints we face in business and life will shift and morph as time goes on.
Abundance in some areas will lead to constraints in others. Leveraging constraints to unlock abundance will lead to new limitations.
The cycle continues, but with these tools, we can embrace constraints and achieve more than we originally thought was possible.
How will you apply these ideas from this book to your work?