Use Constraints to Your Advantage

Constraints are everywhere.

What?! You don’t know what constraints are?

“person showing handcuff” by niu niu on Unsplash

You live in, with and around constraints, you just do not know that we typically call a constraint. The most appropriate definition for a constraint is a restriction or limitation. One that you are compelled to either avoid or to complete an action. Constraints can be analogized to a bottleneck where you are unable to perform an action because the available tools, equipment, resources, time, money, etc. are unavailable for you to complete the necessary actions. Instead, we need to view constraints as a catalyst to be more creative, to be more imaginative, to figure out a solution to your problem. Not as a barrier or a reason to quit. Constraints are our friends.

The term constraint has been around the manufacturing world for several years. It is used to identify and label bottlenecks in manufacturing or production systems that cause delays or backlogs, not allowing you to complete the work you need in the allotted time. Every process, every effort has constraints. Some constraints are “acceptable” yet others, the most debilitating constraints need to be addressed and — surprise! — these constraints are everywhere. The idea of using constraints to make you more productive, more capable and more effective is a challenge yet extremely rewarding. 

The Theory of Constraints by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt was introduced in The Goal. It is a scientific and systematic method of identifying the most important constraints around your bottleneck and emphasizing the work to solve those issues causing those bottlenecks and eliminating the constraints to make yourself more productive and profitable.

Some of the more popular constraints that you live with daily are time, money and resources. Each one of these constraints is an excuse to not accomplish the work needed and we usually try to address these constraints by asking for MORE of the things we are short of, rather than trying to use it as a catalyst to solve our problems.

IF we had MORE time we could…

IF we had MORE money we could…

IF we had MORE resources we could…

Stop making excuses. Accept the fact that there are constraints and work with them.

“brown-and-white clocks” by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

If we look at time constraints, we never have enough time to get the work we need to finish. Now as you complete a post-mortem on why something was not done on time, I suspect most will find that we were not effective with our allotted time. We wasted it chasing after chrome squirrels. Rather than having the discipline to work on the most important thing, we check e-mail, we respond to IMs, looking at the weather, sitting in meetings that we do not need to be a part of — we find something, anything, else to distract us from that work.

Sure, there are times when we need more time to complete an action. Let us consider the type of time in this respect. Are you constrained by the date and time it is due or the amount of labor needed to work it? For instance, you have 160 hours of work to be done, but you only have five days to complete it? What are some simple answers to this quandary? Can you get three more people to help? Review the requirements and determine if you really need 160 hours to complete the work — is there something that you can cut? Can you use a bit of the Mechanical Turk to complete the action? Is there prior work that could be “re-appropriated” to help fulfill the actions? Can macros, or automation be created to find results (meaning you do not accomplish work specific to that action in the first 80 hours because you were taking that time to develop a macro to get it done, and the automation you created accomplishes everything in 33% of the remaining time that it would have taken?)

“coin lot on glass jar” by Michael Longmire on Unsplash

Money. We never have enough money. Do you think if you had ALL the money available to you that you would be as productive? Or as creative? Excess of anything creates excess WASTE. The human response is, “Oh, we will just use/get more.”

Wrong.

Unlimited resources make us lazy. Stupid, in fact. Admittedly, my opinion is that this is why many start-ups fail — because of too much money available to them too early in the process from angel investors. Having money as a constraint is a great catalyst for solving problems. You may not have any money for a marketing or advertising budget, so now what? Leverage social media, partner with a company that your product complements. Be creative and use artwork from friends and families, word of mouth, news stations, product placement via guerilla marketing techniques — anything that gets your name out there.

“white textile lot” by Ethan Bodnar on Unsplash

Then we have the resource issue. Is this a lack of materials? Not having enough materials to carry out the work? Look at how Ikea used waste products to develop furniture. Use a critical eye on all available or material resources that you can use to support your product creation. What about people resources? Maybe you do not have a brilliant Ph.D. on your staff — she is just too expensive. Do you know somebody who knows somebody? Using relationships to help find that person that may have the expert knowledge to solve that problem? Or again, use social media to help solve the problems. Or leveraging a group of people to brainstorm ideas, to build on one another’s concepts and fall into a solution? You may not have the funds to support and hire a full-time staff — can you hire a local “sewing circle” of retirees or temporary work-from-home “staff” to help with the manufacture or assembly of products?

Even with my personal experience in generating blog materials. Time and available resources always get in the way. Walking the dogs, taking the kids to school or swimming, work — I am not in front of a “physical” keyboard but using available technology allows me to capture my thoughts and ideas. Using Google Keep to capture short notes via voice memos. Or when walking the dogs, verbally dictating the bulk of the blog collateral into a Google Docs page and editing later when I can camp out in front of a computer.

Look outside the box by using constraints. Then find a proxy solution to your constraints. Do not let the constraints be a barrier to getting your work accomplished. Use the constraints to explore opportunities that you are blind to. Use constraints to be more creative, more productive, and more successful in your efforts.

Go forth and be brilliant.