Applying Constraints To Your Work

“The right constraints can lead to your very best work. My favorite example? Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat with only 236 different words, so his editor bets him he couldn’t write a book with only 50 different words. Dr. Seuss came back and won the bet with Green Eggs and Ham, one of the bestselling children’s books of all time.” – AUSTIN KLEON

When it comes to your work you’re going to want to have a great set of constraints. Without them, you’re going to float aimlessly through your day and week and wonder why you don’t get the work done or the projects completed. We need to set time limits for the work we do in order to be productive. We need to build these into our teams and their worlds with structure and create a professional environment that’s rich with productivity and a sense of order with the flow. With this structure comes the opportunity to create and this is where we grow.

Let me give you an example. Your car’s brakes are not operating the way they use to, they make noises they didn’t make before, your car probably needs a brake job. You take it into the local shop and they inspect it and 10 minutes later the shop manager sits down with you and reviews the estimate, $1550 for the repairs! How does he know what it’s going to cost? Well, he has constraints. He has standard billable hours for each job that have been established within his industry and a parts price list. No different for the dentist or the hair stylist. So why should you be any different as a hotel leader?

Well, you’re not – you just think you’re different. How long should it take to do the budget, the forecast, the weekly schedule, the owner’s commentary, the weekly supply orders, you name it and if you’re on your game they all have constraints. No constraints in your professional world equals no life, without the constraints the work wins and you reduced to following the ever-changing and negative aspects of why things take so long and don’t get done. Lack of constraints is only a habit.

Be the leader who creates the kind of space in your world for great things to happen. Opportunity can only ever be realized if we act upon circumstance and an opportunistic circumstance can only be created if we use time effectively thereby allowing us the chance for great things to happen. If we’re always up to our necks in work that controls us we lose all opportunity to advance. Being a victim of these so-called circumstances of endless work is simply a story we created from the victim mindset. The way out is to be the organized mechanic who has the team that can do the brake job in the standard 3 hours. If we don’t have the skills and the mechanics of our team to perform the work in the constrained time we need to create the team that can. If we leave it up to someone else to do this, we are dead on arrival. So many leaders are victims of their circumstance; the organization, the boss, the HR department, you name it they can’t do their best because someone else holds the key. This kind of thinking is not going to win the next race.

Look at your day, your week, your month. Then look at your team and where can you apply constraints that will yield you time for great things to happen? It’s up to you, that’s the good news and one by one you will build the team that makes mountains move.