A Beautiful Constraint: How to Transform Your Limitations
Into Advantages And Why It's Everyone's Business Now is a book
about everyday, practical inventiveness, designed for the
constrained times in which we live. It describes how to take the
kinds of issues that all of us face today--lack of time,
money, resources, attention, know-how--and see in them the
opportunity for transformation of oneself and one's organization's
fortunes. The ideas in the book are based on the authors' extensive
work as business consultants, and are brought to life in 35
personal interviews from such varied sources as Nike, IKEA,
Unilever, the U.S. Navy, Formula One racecar engineers, public
school teachers in California, and barley farmers in South Africa.
Underpinned by scientific research into the psychology of
breakthrough, the book is a practical handbook full of tools and
tips for how to make more from less. Beautifully designed and
accessible, A Beautiful Constraint will appeal beyond its
core business audience to anyone who needs to find the opportunity
in 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 with
routines that blind us from seeing opportunity along new paths
Ask Propelling Questions to help us break free of those paths
and put the most pressing and valuable constraints at the heart of
our process
Adopt a Can If mentality to answer these
questions--focused on "how," not "if"
Access the abundance to be found all around us to help
transform constraints
Activate the high-octane mix of emotions necessary to fuel the
tenacity required for success

We live in a world of seemingly ever-increasing constraints,
driven as much by an overabundance of choices and connections as by
a scarcity of time and resources. How we respond to these
constraints is one of the most important issues of our time and
will be a large determinant of our progress as people, businesses
and planet, in the future. A Beautiful Constraint calls for
a more widespread capability for constraint-driven problem solving
and provides the framework to achieve that.

Autorentext

ADAM MORGAN is the author of Eating The Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, the international bestseller that introduced the concept of challenger brands to the world of marketing. His ideas have been widely cited as a key influence by a new generation of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world. He is founder of eatbigfish, a renowned marketing consultancy that works with clients to develop their own breakthrough strategies, from Helsinki to Hanoi. MARK BARDEN runs the west coast business for eatbigfish in the US. Over his career he's won the Platinum Award for direct response marketing, taken a dot com public, warmed up a crowd for Ellen De Generes, and played a Buddhist monk in a Kleenex commercial. His advice on how to create breakthrough thinking with outsize results is much sought after. He is a popular speaker, world class facilitator and occasional coach.

Zusammenfassung
An inspiring yet practical guide for transforming limitations into opportunities A Beautiful Constraint: How to Transform Your Limitations Into Advantages And Why It's Everyone's Business Now is a book about everyday, practical inventiveness, designed for the constrained times in which we live. It describes how to take the kinds of issues that all of us face todaylack of time, money, resources, attention, know-howand see in them the opportunity for transformation of oneself and one's organization's fortunes. The ideas in the book are based on the authors' extensive work as business consultants, and are brought to life in 35 personal interviews from such varied sources as Nike, IKEA, Unilever, the U.S. Navy, Formula One racecar engineers, public school teachers in California, and barley farmers in South Africa. Underpinned by scientific research into the psychology of breakthrough, the book is a practical handbook full of tools and tips for how to make more from less. Beautifully designed and accessible, A Beautiful Constraint will appeal beyond its core business audience to anyone who needs to find the opportunity in 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 dependentstuck with routines that blind us from seeing opportunity along new paths
Ask Propelling Questions to help us break free of those paths and put the most pressing and valuable constraints at the heart of our process
Adopt a Can If mentality to answer these questionsfocused on "how," not "if"
Access the abundance to be found all around us to help transform constraints
Activate the high-octane mix of emotions necessary to fuel the tenacity required for success
We live in a world of seemingly ever-increasing constraints, driven as much by an overabundance of choices and connections as by a scarcity of time and resources. How we respond to these constraints is one of the most important issues of our time and will be a large determinant of our progress as people, businesses and planet, in the future. A Beautiful Constraint calls for a more widespread capability for constraint-driven problem solving and provides the framework to achieve that.

Inhalt

Introduction 1
The beauty in constraint, and why it matters

Victim, Neutralizer, & Transformer 16
Our starting relationship with constraints
Break Path Dependence 34
The behaviors and practices that stop us seeing opportunity in constraint
Ask Propelling Questions 56
How to frame the constraint to force breakthrough
Can-If 78
How to find solutions to constraint-driven problems
Creating Abundance 102
How to see and access resources we don't have
Activating Emotions 124
How to fuel tenacity on the journey
The Fertile Zero 146
Learning from people who succeeded with next to nothing
Constraint-Driven Cultures 172
How big companies have learned to love constraints
Scarcity and Abundance 194
Why this capability is so important to all of us today
Making Constraints Beautiful 208
How to use the ABC approach
Leadership & The Future of Constraints 224
The opportunity for progress