Embracing Constraints

#6 of the 365 Things I Learned From 365 Days of Learning: Embracing your constraints can unleash creativity.

Although this is #6 on my list, it was one of the first things that I learned on my year long learning journey, for two reasons. One reason is related to the very first learning experience that I had on Day 1 of my 365 Days of Learning, and the other reason is due to the tenets of “disrupting yourself” I learned from Whitney Johnson, an innovation and disruption theorist – and a friend and mentor.

The first day of my 365 Days of learning was a snowy day during a frigid winter. I had just attended my first leadership convention at The Kraft Heinz company, and was sitting in a shuttle, taking a 2 hour trip from The Blue Mountains in southwest Ontario, Canada back to the Toronto airport.

The scenery outside the shuttle window was a winter wonderland. I didn’t want to spend the whole trip staring at my smartphone, answering emails and mindlessly surfing, so I decided that the perfect thing to do would be to listen to one of the many podcasts that I had tucked away in a folder I call “Learnspiration.” This folder is a storage place for all the articles and podcasts that catch my eye as I am walking through my everyday routines. My intention is that someday I will consume all of those items – all those delicious ideas and perspectives that I enjoy when I #MakeTimeForLearning. On that day, I decided that a podcast would allow me to learn while traveling, and still enjoy the scenery outside my window as we drove.

I chose a podcast from the Chief Learning Officer magazine which featured Judy Whitcomb, SVP of human resources and learning and organizational development at Vi Living, a developer, owner, and operator of luxury residential communities for older adults. The title of the podcast, “Getting Creative: Achieving Big Results with Limited Resources, caught my eye, especially in the first few weeks of a new job where I was laser focused on figuring out creative ways to optimize the available resources to get the job done.

That first podcast set a few things in motion. I finally decided to apply some of the lessons I had learned through My 52 Weeks of Worship Project to learning. As a result of that passion project, affectionately called My52WOW, I experienced the power of doing something big by breaking it up into small pieces. I made my first post to the KetchApp (our internal employee network at Kraft Heinz), and made a promise that 364 more days of learning would follow.

The lessons learned from that podcast also sparked a keen interest in learning more about marketing (which I will explore in upcoming articles), and it inspired #6 of the 365 Things I Learned From 365 Days of Learning: Embracing your constraints can unleash creativity.

The concept of embracing constraints was one that has intrigued me since the days that preceded my start at Kraft Heinz. As I packed up my life in Brooklyn and wrapped up my time at BlackRock, I listened to a different episode of the “Disrupt Yourself” podcast every day. I highly recommend this podcast produced by Whitney Johnson. While moving my life and career from New York back to Chicago, her framework of personal disruption became my curriculum, including #3 in the list of accelerants of disruption: “Embrace Constraints.”

Every time I hear Whitney discuss the concept that “constraints are a gift,” and that we should “want the box so (we) can innovate within it,” I am reminded that it is wisdom to embrace your constraints, especially if you are trying to unleash creativity, foster innovation, and move through challenges to a new normal, and perhaps even, a better one.

The past week or two has been challenging in so many ways. As we are all beginning to truly process the global impact that the novel coronavirus is having on all of our lives, the picture is shifting every day. In the midst of an already uncertain, always-changing world which requires resilience and vigilance, our ways of working and living are being challenged. People are considering a shift in our collective normal in fundamental ways - at least for the time being. At work, companies are discussing telecommuting, transforming conferences into virtual events, and how to protect our people. People are asking themselves what travel is essential and what can be done a different way. Schools are canceling classes and events, and many are moving meetings, gatherings and courses online. People are thinking in a real way about how to maintain their health and the health of their loved ones in the face of a seemingly uncertain threat and ever unfolding information.

New constraints are being introduced every day. And I am being reminded daily of #6 of the 365 Things I Learned From 365 Days of Learning: Embracing your constraints can unleash creativity. You can be frustrated by carefully laid plans and routines being disrupted, or you can embrace the constraints, pivot, and move.

This week, I received a newsletter from a colleague of mine from the Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 coaches group, Robert Glazer that stated the following: “…Operating with constraints isn’t always bad—often it leads us toward different ways of thinking that are beneficial and drive effective change. When we don’t have any restrictions on us, we tend to reflexively do what we have always done and don’t consider possible improvements.” This was a thought provoking consideration that prodded me to share this lesson learned from my 365 Days of Learning.

What are you working on?

What constraints are you working within - in your life, or at work – that have been frustrating you? How can you reframe those constraints so that they provide inspiration and motivation to innovate and be creative so that you can achieve your ultimate goal?

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My name is Pamay. I am a lifelong learner, a lover of laughter, words, big ideas, and serving my community. I am the Chief Learning Officer at the Kraft Heinz Company and the Chief Experience Officer of The My 52 Weeks of Worship Project.

On February 1, 2019, I made a professional commitment to learn something new every day and share it out to my Kraft Heinz Family. On January 31, 2020, I completed 365 Days of Learning, part of an effort to model what it looks like to #LearnLikeAnOwner and #MakeTimeForLearning in an organization undergoing a learning transformation.

As a result of that year of learning, I created a list – the 365 Things I Learned From 365 Days of Learning. Enjoy reading about all the things!