Constraints force focus

Jason has an interesting piece on How the lack of constraints killed the quality of Star Wars

Constraints drive innovation and forces focus. They are to be embraced, not removed.

Having just left my second of five weeks of theory of constraints application expert training, I am nodding in agreement.  We tend to think of constraints as bad things, but if you look at any entity there is always a constraint that limits their ability to their goals.  Identify that constraint, and you can make much more strategic decisions about how you are operating your business.  Subordinating everything else to that decision is the rub, of course.