Handling Constraints for Fast Idea Development
Constraints, Barriers, Limitations, Barricades, Walls:
Are tools to help you create Ideas!
The Ideative Process recognizes the need to develop ideas on deadlines. Traditional creative approaches encourage you to ignore barriers and constraints during your initial Idea development work. The Ideative Process recognizes that resource constraints, regulatory barriers, and systems limitations are real. Therefore, we need to recognize these constraints and work through them.
Ideative people understand that constraints are your friends.
You can’t ignore constraints because if you ignore them you’ll waste valuable time developing Ideas you simply can’t use. When you ignore constraints you risk ending up without a workable idea, or worse, you could end up presenting an idea that is unrealistic, only to have to explain later why you suggested something that you did not have all the facts on first.
Instead, identify your constraints and use them as guides or tools. I’ll show you how.
Treat constraints as blocks of Knowledge.
Focus on the constraints. What are they and why is that a constraint? Write constraints down on a whiteboard or post it notes on the wall. Each constraint should be a unique item.
Example:
• Budget; this year’s budget is allocated already
• Regulatory; The easy solution is blocked by Federal regulations
• Technology; We don’t have technology that can solve the problem
How can I get by that constraint, or lessen that constraint? Examine at each constraint as a unique element.
Think through the barriers that everybody knows about and take them on. Sure, the Federal regulators of your industry clearly do not allow that action, but when was the last time that you asked those regulators? And did you ask them in reference to the new technology recently invented, the new people working in the Federal regulator’s office or new regulatory people in your company? Things change.
Challenge each major constraint with this approach.
Build with your blocks of Experience and Knowledge. Your constraints are nothing more than unusual shapes and sizes of components that you want to connect with.
