The One Thing You Must Have to Grow

While the world is starting to cautiously open up from the pandemic, many are still watching to see what is going to happen next. We don’t know what tomorrow may bring, but as students of history and business we do know a few things—some things will change that we will not expect or envision, other things will march on as they always have, and we will adjust with a new perspective as life continues its march forward.

Regardless of what changes, we know some things will hold true: people will still need other people; people will still need products and services; people will still need work; and many will want their work to have meaning.

Though walking into the unknown can cause us to focus on what we don't have or what is missing, what we also know is that what we often view as “scarcity” is often just a constraint. Embracing Constraints, Disruption Guidepost #3, can allow us to grow. Constraints allow us to move forward with what we have, in order to create what we will need in the future. Even if that future feels foggy and unknown.

Constraints are necessary to provide focus and help us think creatively to solve problems. Winston Churchill said, “kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.” Embracing constraints sounds counterintuitive. Why would we want constraints? Don't we want wide open space to create? Endless resources to grow future endeavors?

The surprising answer is no.

Researchers have found that people’s happiness actually decreases when they are presented with too many choices, also known as choice overload, or having “overchoice.” Too many options can lead people to make no choice at all. For example, I have a colleague that will walk into a bookstore wanting something to read but will leave with nothing because he is too overwhelmed with options. But choosing a book from a bestseller list, or limiting his book choice to a specific genre would have given him the focus to make a choice.

It doesn't just apply to choices - embracing constraints has implications for businesses as well. A number of hugely successful firms have started during periods of economic hardship including Proctor and Gamble, IBM, FedEx, Disney, CNN, Apple, and, my personal favorite, Toll House Cookies. These companies that many of us love and are now part of our everyday lives started during periods of severe economic hardship. A study by the Kauffman Foundation found that 51% of the FORTUNE 500 companies began during a recession or a bear market, or both.

To climb your individual S Curve of Learning, you need something to push against in order to gain momentum. We prune to get the sweetest fruit from the peach tree, we put cages around tomatoes so they have something to climb - all things that grow need constraints to focus their energy in a direction that is productive.

But how to use this concept in your individual learning and growth?

In my book Disrupt Yourself, I highlighted work by Adam Morgan and Mark Barden. They talk about how to reframe a constraint so it becomes a tool of creation. It’s a four-step process.

First, we move from being a victim to a neutralizer to a transformer. Basically, it’s the process of thought that moves from why did this happen to me (victim), to how am I going to work around this (neutralize), and finally landed on understanding how this constraint going to give me a better solution (transform). Asking questions about the circumstances we are in and using our emotions to go from - "why is this happening to me?" to "I'm grateful this is happening for me" can be a powerful exercise.

Then, we reframe. Think of improvisational theater. When an improviser introduces something, the response from his fellow actors is not “that’s not realistic,” it’s additive. They say “yes, and.” They automatically build onto what is given to them and go from there. Every thought or line that an actor suggests to another is an offer to go somewhere new. If you can think of constraints as an offer from someone else, try to think - what can you build from that? Yes, we are in an economic downturn, and what else is out there for you?

Step three is to seek new sources of abundance. Granted, it feels like there is quite a bit we don't have enough of right now, but there is still plenty we have a lot of. Plenty to be grateful for. For example, as a consequence of not traveling, (like many of you my business usually requires a lot of travel,) I now have time to spend with my family at home. I have time to spend working on my business and creating new revenue streams. That found time is a source of abundance. What will I do with it? What will you do?

Finally, step number four is to activate your emotions. One of the things that we know from Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky is the fear of loss is a greater motivation than the possibility of gain. You can harness this by not only thinking about what will make you happy if you do something new or different but by thinking about how you will be sad or miss out on if you don’t. Think about what could go right instead of focusing on what could go wrong. Use the energy that comes from the emotion to move you forward.

So, what are the constraints you are facing right now? What are you going to do to turn your constraints into a tool for creation? For growth? Is the time for you to launch a new chapter in your career or launch the next FORTUNE 500 company?

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Whitney Johnson is the founder and CEO of WLJ Advisors, a boutique consultancy that helps leaders and the people they work with become fluent in the language of growth. Whitney is one of the leading management thinkers in the world, according to Thinkers50, the author of the bestselling Build an A Team and critically-acclaimed Disrupt Yourself, both published by Harvard Business Press. She is a world-class keynote speaker, frequent lecturer for Harvard Business School's Corporate Learning and an advisor to CEOs. She is a member of the original cohort of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches, and was selected as MG100 / Thinkers50 #1 Coach on Talent. Whitney has 1.8 million followers on LinkedIn, where she was selected as a Top Voice in 2018, and her course on Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has been viewed more than 1 million times.