A Beautiful Constraint

An inspiring yet practical guide for transforming limitationsinto opportunities A Beautiful Constraint: How to Transform Your LimitationsInto Advantages And Why It's Everyone's Business Now is a bookabout everyday, practical inventiveness, designed for theconstrained times in which we live. It describes how to take thekinds of issues that all of us face today--lack of time,money, resources, attention, know-how--and see in them theopportunity for transformation of oneself and one's organization'sfortunes. The ideas in the book are based on the authors' extensivework as business consultants, and are brought to life in 35personal interviews from such varied sources as Nike, IKEA,Unilever, the U.S. Navy, Formula One racecar engineers, publicschool teachers in California, and barley farmers in South Africa.Underpinned by scientific research into the psychology ofbreakthrough, the book is a practical handbook full of tools andtips for how to make more from less. Beautifully designed andaccessible, A Beautiful Constraint will appeal beyond itscore business audience to anyone who needs to find the opportunityin constraint. The book takes the reader on a journey through the mindset,method and motivation required to move from the initial "victim"stage into the transformation stage. It challenges us to: * Examine how we've become path dependent--stuck withroutines that blind us from seeing opportunity along new paths * Ask Propelling Questions to help us break free of those pathsand put the most pressing and valuable constraints at the heart ofour process * Adopt a Can If mentality to answer thesequestions--focused on "how," not "if" * Access the abundance to be found all around us to helptransform constraints * Activate the high-octane mix of emotions necessary to fuel thetenacity required for success We live in a world of seemingly ever-increasing constraints,driven as much by an overabundance of choices and connections as bya scarcity of time and resources. How we respond to theseconstraints is one of the most important issues of our time andwill be a large determinant of our progress as people, businessesand planet, in the future. A Beautiful Constraint calls fora more widespread capability for constraint-driven problem solvingand provides the framework to achieve that.