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Why Constraints Are Good for Innovation - Coggle Diagram
Why Constraints Are Good
for Innovation
managers tend to consider compliance restrictions and a lack of resources as the main obstacles to innovation
by getting rid of rules and boundaries, creativity, and innovative thinking will thrive
But the research, challenges this wisdom and suggests that managers can innovate better by embracing constraints
145 empirical studies on the effects of constraints on creativity and innovation
found that individuals, teams, and organizations alike benefit from a healthy dose of constraints.
It is only when the constraints become too high that they stifle creativity and innovation
when there are no constraints on the creative process,
complacency sets in
and people follow what psychologists call the path-of-least-resistance –
they go for the most intuitive idea that comes to mind rather than investing in the development of better ideas.
Constraints, in contrast, provide focus and a creative challenge that motivates people to search for and connect information
from different sources to generate novel ideas for new products, services, or business processes.
Constraints can foster innovation when they
represent a motivating challenge and focus efforts
on a more narrowly defined way forward.
Therefore, managers can embrace and use a variety of constraints in their arsenal.
These constraints
take three main forms.
they can enforce
specific processes
procedures on seeking early market and technological feedback
they can set specific output requirements such as product or service specifications
they can limit inputs
managers may intentionally cap resources in corporate
to motivate employees to be more resourceful
When a creative task is
too constraining, employees’ motivation is hampered
it is harder to form novel connections and serendipitous insights
the key for fostering creativity and innovation in your organization is to strike a balance
by orchestrating different types of constraints
As former CEO Dwayne Spradlin noted
a typical innovation problem should contain tight output constraints
and typically these are combined with moderate input constraints
When designing an effective balance of constraints, we recommend that managers take characteristics
interdisciplinary projects often benefit from clearly defined process constraints to govern communication and coordination
more it seeks innovations that break away from the current
state of affairs, the more it will benefit from relaxing input and output
require atypical connections between disciplines, areas, and knowledge
By framing constraints as creative challenges, managers can build an
understanding of constraints as positives, and thus invite more creativity.