Uncover Constraints to Accelerate Strategic Growth

At a mid-sized tech firm, growth had plateaued. Sales were solid, but new customer acquisition lagged. The leadership team charted every sales step—from cold outreach to contract signing. They discovered that the contract review phase, handled by three different departments, took an average of four weeks—while all other steps averaged under one week.
That contract review chokepoint was shaving off momentum. By consolidating authority in a single legal liaison and adopting a standard template, they collapsed review to five days. Within two quarters, new customer wins rose by 30%, propelling the company out of its slump.
This constraint-analysis approach comes from Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints, a staple in operations management. It teaches that every system has one bottleneck that limits throughput. By finding and elevating that bottleneck, you lift the entire system’s performance.
For your career or project, chart your key steps, spot the slow link, and apply concentrated resources to that one area. You’ll liberate latent capacity, gain steam, and start hitting stretch goals you couldn’t touch before.

Map your own process—maybe onboarding a new client or launching a product. Find the slowest step and devote attention, resources, or training there. You’ll be amazed how that one tweak speeds everything else up.