How we respond to constraints: Are you a victim, neutraliser or transformer?
How do we move to a different kind of relationship with constraints, one that would make us more able to take advantage of them?
By 1957, Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was already a bestselling author of children’s books. But it was the imposition of a stringent constraint that would lead him to pen a book that has sold more than ten million copies around the world.
William Spaulding, then head of education at Houghton Mifflin (one of the largest educational publishers in the United States) asked Geisel to “write me a story that first-graders can’t put down.” The added requirement came later, in the form of a list of words that Geisel was to use. Spaulding wanted a story written using a vocabulary of just 225 specific words.
Geisel responded first as a victim: “At first I thought it was impossible and ridiculous, and I was about to get out of the whole thing; I then decided to look at the list one more time and to use the first two words that rhymed as the title of the book—cat and hat.”
The Cat in the Hat was an immediate success, praised as an exciting alternative to the Dick and Jane primers. It transformed children’s books and the nature of primary education.
When the head of Random House bet Geisel $50 that he couldn’t write a book using just 50 words, Geisel responded with Green Eggs and Ham, which uses 49 words of one syllable and the word anywhere.
It became the best selling Dr. Seuss book ever.
So what can we learn?
We need not be defined by our initial attitude towards constraints. It is natural to adopt a victim mindset at the beginning; even the most experienced and skilled transformers of constraints can find themselves with this mindset at first.
The three attitudinal stages
There are three attitudinal stages that problem-solvers go through when faced with a constraint.
Victim Stage
This constraint will necessarily inhibit our ability to realize our ambition. Avoidance strategies: denial of the constraint or Reduction strategies: reduce level of ambition to fit perceived impact of constraint.
Neutralizing Stage
Our ambition is too important to allow this constraint to inhibit it. Workaround strategies: neutralize the effect of the constraint by finding another way around it.
Transformer Stage
This constraint that we need to respond to could catalyze arrival at a better solution. Transformative strategies: use the constraint to prompt different, potentially breakthrough new approaches and solutions.
Summary
We all have the potential to move from victim to neutralizer to transformer. Most of us are already proficient neutralizers, even transformers in other parts of our lives (perhaps in a hobby, or sports, or making music); we just haven’t recognized that we can move through these stages in other areas of our lives, too.
Greater self-awareness yields valuable insights into where we might need the most help to progress from one stage to the next.
So the key question then becomes “Why are we stuck in the stage where we are? And how do we progress beyond it?”