Embracing constraints in your team

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This Harvard Business Review article by Oguz Acar and others, argues that constraints drive innovation. That sounds paradoxical, but it's easier to comprehend when you consider that without limits on time, money, people or resources there's no real need to be innovative. You can take your time doing things the old way, spend as much money as you like as you burn through the people and resources at your disposal!

A similar pattern occurs relating to team performance. Teams that we admire rarely achieve great things only when the conditions are in their favour. Average teams can do that. High performing teams achieve great things in spite of the circumstances that they are operating within.

Teams we admire do great things with less time, less money and less resources than they would choose. They often outperform teams or groups with better access to many of those elements. They do it when the conditions aren't perfect. How? Lots of ways, but one of the key principles can be drawn from this question - a version of which is asked often in such teams:

"What is happening for this team at this time?"

The best teams are able to identify and accept what is happening in the team - as opposed to what they would like to be happening. They are aware of what the team is trying to achieve, what pressure it is under, the factors beyond their control that are frustrating or thwarting progress. They don't deny these limitations. They acknowledge, accept and operate within them. They improve what they can, but they get on with the work to be done. They choose to spend their energy, attention and time on the activities that derive the greatest benefit.

This is not to say that they accept unachievable or unreasonable expectations. They hold their ground on work that will strain (rather than stretch) the team. They are able to articulate the tradeoffs that need to be made (you'll hear conversations like "if you want it by then, it won't have all of the features") and they build credibility with their stakeholders because they don't buy into false urgency. They keep perspective and they do great work in spite of conditions conspiring against them.

Unsurprisingly, this is much easier said than done, which is why it's something that we admire when we see it.

Here are a couple of questions for you to consider this week:

1. How can the constraints that your team is facing drive performance?

2. When has your team achieved great outcomes in spite of the conditions it faced?