Theory of constraints

In every system, you have potential, and you have constraints.

The theory of constraints base philosophy can be boiled down to:

Every system will grow up to its constraints and no further.

Most entrepreneurs and executives spend all their time trying to add potential to their businesses. In doing so, they think they are solving their business constraints but are not. Either they are developing new lanes of potential, or they don’t realize they’re capped by one of their constraints.

What makes macro-speeded happen is not all the frenzies, the frenetic energy, or the hunger for shipping new stuff. It’s knowing which problems to solve and, most importantly, in what order.

To visualize this, you can think of your business as a chain with many links.

Each link is a piece of your business big enough to make sense on its own, like departments, sections, a specific process, a part of your delivery chain, etc.

When connected to one another, these links form the chain that is your business.

The point is, when you stretch that chain of yours, the weakest link will break first.

Your biggest constraint is the weak link that allows the chain to break. That link is the one thing not strong enough to support the weight of more potential.

As a strategist, your goal is to identify the weakest links in your chain and reinforce them in the order most relevant to your specific context.

So, like every business on earth, your business has a constraint, and you have to identify it right now.

For this, you have to ask yourself the right questions.

To help you do it right, we made a business constraints identifier in the business playbook.

It’s 100% free for now, and you can get it here.

If you want to learn more about the theory of constraints, here’s the book on Amazon.