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Understanding and managing constraints for success

We all know and acknowledge that all situations and challenges come with their own set of constraints. All solutions to the problems have to be compliant to those constraints.  However, as leaders and managers it is important to understand the nature of constraints and juggle them well.

Constraints can be mainly of three types: time, money, and knowledge.

As you can see, there can be multiple combinations of these three resource constraints that act on a challenge differently.  If your situation has equal amounts of all the three constraints, you have to strategically arrive at a trade-off.  Otherwise, set clear priorities to your team as to what are the constraints and what is the levy.  

Some managers are apprehensive about giving levy in any resource for the fear of abuse. However, it is important to articulate so that teams do not get demoralized by an unachievable goal.  As a leader, it is also important that you have clarity on the ratio of these three constraints so that your decisions are faster and effective.


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