Managing Constraints: Looking for Abundance?

Leaders are always looking to manage resources all the time. The worst nightmare of a leader is encountering resource constraints or scarcity of resources while fulfilling business goals/ objectives.

Many would agree with me that a constraint is a limitation that materially affects your ability to act. People will have different responses while facing constraints:

? A “victim” looks for a way out and pulls back when constraints appear, or they panic and freeze.

? A “neutralizer” looks for a workaround to deal with the constraints, which may not be cost effective.

? A “transformer” views it as an opportunity and builds solutions through innovative ways.

How you frame a question: ?Let me illustrate this with an example. In 2006, when automaker Audi sought to win the legendary 24-hour Le Mans road race, its engineers didn’t ask how to make their car faster than anyone else’s. They asked how they could win if their car wasn’t the fastest. Their radical solution was to design and build a high-performance diesel engine. The revolutionary Audi R10 TDI was no faster than its competition, but its diesel engine provided a significant boost in fuel economy and required fewer pit stops than its rivals. That margin led to victory.

The way you frame questions makes the difference between success and failure. Learn to recognize which stage defines your current response to a barrier, and try to move forward by understanding why you are at that stage and what you can do to move past it. Be on the alert not to slip into a victim mind-set at the first appearance of a constraint.

Asking why this is happening to you is a reflexive response, so ask…but then keep going. Deliberately identifying and leaving behind victimhood to become a transformer demands strength of mind, method and motivation. Accept that you can deal with the problem. Break away from old patterns and go beyond the dominant path (the one that has always served you in the past).

Can/if sequences: Don’t talk about whether a goal is possible, talk about how it could be possible. Don’t say you can’t do something, say why you can do it, no matter how far-fetched the reason. This attitude inserts the “oxygen of optimism” into your outlook. It makes every person in the conversation search for answers, not obstacles. It helps people regard themselves as seeking resolutions, not problems. Can/if sequences follow specific, structured types like these:

1. “We can if we think of it as…”

2. “We can if we use other people to…”

3. “We can if we access the knowledge of…”

4. “We can if we resource it by…”

Creating abundance: Imagine a giant orange tree packed with fruits. If we pluck all the fruits that are easily accessible from the lower branches, then we have exhausted the resources. Let’s assume that someone came up with a technology called a ladder. Suddenly, we have a new reach and now we have abundant resource.

Mutual acceptance of each other’s ideas builds abundance into the process. Recognizing the “tradable value” in what you give others and in what they give you is the essence of resourcefulness. To gain access to the value in another person’s resources, think creatively about the value of your own. Sidestep your dominant path and regard your contributions through the prism of the other person’s needs.

Those who can help you may include your stakeholders, outside partners, competitors and those who have a lot of what you need and who want what you’ve got to swap. Approach them with a mutually beneficial “hustle” that serves your mutual needs.

However, not every constraint has a beneficial resolution. Today’s human endeavors happen somewhere between scarcity and abundance. Technology allows you to learn anything or to connect to anyone in the world, any time of day or night. That’s abundance. Yet every business today, whatever its size, must cope with a scarcity of time, resources and/or opportunities.

Making something out of nothing: ?When the McLaren Formula One racing team lost its major sponsors due to the EU ban on promoting tobacco, it faced a huge budget shortfall. The team looked at every detail of its operation to find ways to become faster, leaner, more efficient and more aware of costs. McLaren employees – from garage-floor sweepers to superstar drivers – saw that money alone isn’t what makes a team great. Efficiency and dedication drive results. Instead of just painting the race car to promote the sponsors, McLaren’s people wore sponsors’ logos, hats and watches for maximum visibility. With this enthusiasm, McLaren scored a major sponsorship deal with the giant phone company Vodafone.

Constraint-driven cultures: Creating a constraint-driven culture is important in dealing with the scarcity. I am inspired by IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, who preaches that building expensive products is simple – but building inexpensive products that endure is a difficult and worthy mission. He revels in asking “impossible” questions.

Is this the age of scarcity or the age of abundance? The answer lies in you on how you deal with the constraints or scarcity.

My thoughts are inspired by these two excellent books, Abundance: 1)The Future Is Better Than You Think and ??

2) Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler.

?