It is fascinating to me that the whole idea of ‘constraints' feels like more of a limitation than a liberation.
Nobody – me included – likes being kept in physical or intellectual shackles and yet they are incredibly powerful. Liberating, even.
If we trust a simple set of constraints – rules – we can invest our thinking energy where it has most impact.
In the case of preparing communication, this means creating greater meaning as economically as possible.
This has been more evident than usual in my coaching sessions in past weeks and I wanted to share an example with you.
When coaching a finance executive yesterday, we went from making bland and frankly boring statements to communicating impactful ideas by using constraints.
In this particular case, our main message needed to be a recommendation rather than an observation. Let me show you what I mean:
Observation – We are allocating unspent funds to teams that have demonstrated that they can be compliant with the ABC policy funding agreement
Recommendation – We recommend allocating the unspent funds to teams that have invested in a step-change in talent development
The second version is so much more meaningful – and interesting. It is also the result of sticking to some simple rules, or ‘constraints' that push for clarity and insight.
Similarly, we have been talking about constraints in the problem solving context during the recent Clarity in Problem Solving program.
I was delighted to see in a recent HBR article that I am not alone in encouraging people to stick to some simple constraints.
>> Click here to access the article and another recent one by me on the topic of constraints also.
I hope you find it as interesting as I did.
PRESENTED BY DAVINA STANLEY
I love what I do.
I help senior leaders and their teams prepare high-quality papers and presentations in a fraction of the time.
This involves 'nailing' the message that will quickly engage decision makers in the required outcome.
I leverage 25+ years' experience including
- learning structured thinking techniques at McKinsey in Hong Kong in the mid 1990s before coaching and training their teams globally as a freelancer for a further 15 years
- being approved to teach the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto in 2009
- helping CEOs, C-suite leaders and their reports deeply understand their stakeholder needs and communicate accordingly
- seeing leaders cut the number of times they review major papers by ~30% and teams cut the amount of time they take to prepare major papers by ~20%*
- watching senior meetings focus on substantive discussions and better decisions rather than trying to clarify the issue
My approach helps anyone who needs to engage senior leaders and Boards.
Recent clients include 7Eleven, KPMG, Mercer, Meta, Woolworths.
Learn more at www.clarityfirstprogram.com
(*) Numbers are based on 2023 client benchmarking results.
