When Unreasonable is Good

One of the striking contrasts of moving from a starving startup to an established larger company is the set of constraints that present themselves naturally in each. In a large organization it is very difficult to set a rapid tempo for decisions or change. In a startup there are usually far less money and far less time than we might consider reasonable to satisfy the business objective. I found this very frustrating at first, but as the pattern developed I realized that embracing it gave rise to a very healthy creative process.

Tight time or money forces us to question assumptions about what is possible and what is necessary: the only alternative is to give up and find other employment. Without this pressure it is easy to get stuck accepting our own preconceptions, and this can lead to excessive effort to deliver low-impact results. 

Constraints lead to creativity, as most artists know. We even have names for sets of constraints - Haiku, Iambic Pentameter, Calligraphy, Improv, Opera, Bebop, Soccer, or Chess to name a few. In both art and sport, the constraints of form and medium are so widely accepted that we hardly notice them until someone rebels against them. But they are fuel for creativity. 

A ShipIt day is a radical creativity enhancer. Named by Atlassian, a ShipIt is a 24 hour period ending in a demo contest, in which employees self-assemble teams to create whatever they think is interesting, with the goal to demo it at the end of the 24 hour period. The radical time constraint gets people to break through conceptual barriers about what is and is not possible, yet gives everyone a chance to decide for themselves what is important rather than doing as they are told.

Recent history has many examples of unreasonableness leading to harm as well. In many cases, pressure to meet short-term operating goals led teams to disable safety interlocks (the Chernobyl reactor) or fudge their assessment of risk (the Challenger shuttle or the Pinto). The common thread seems to be that during execution of a program, there must be an emphasis on candor and honest risk assessment. Unreasonable constraints during execution may drive creativity, but not the kind you want.

Power: during ideation, "unreasonable" constraints force us to question assumptions about how things must be done and to focus on essential goals. That's especially true if the ask is to get something done really quickly.

Peril: if applied during execution, unreasonable expectations can lead to increased risk and a culture of avoidance. Even during ideation, constraints need to be well motivated and not cliché, or they may be ignored as insincere.