"Constraints are inevitable element of
any decision-making process and may be of two types: external or internal. External constraints are those imposed on the
decision-making process, such as the time, money, energy, knowledge base, or
other resources that the group needs for the decision-making process and to
implement the solution. Internal constraints
are those integral to the problem. They may have caused the initial problem, or
they may have to do with limitations on the implementation, such as government
regulations, the physical location, technical or design difficulties, or other
constraining factors and circumstances." (146)
I
decided to take the entire excerpt straight from the book because I think that
it defines what constraints are perfectly as well as the two different types:
external and internal. As I was reading this I immediately thought of a life
experience in a small group situation that involved both external and internal
constraints. It happened last year in my event planning class. The
assignment/final project was to plan an event on campus and host it. The external constraint was money. We had to get
donations in order to supply the event with food, prizes, information,
decoration, etc. This was difficult because many places had already donated for
the month or year. The internal constraint
was campus/housing regulations. We had our event in CVB (the tall housing
building with the clock on it). They had certain restrictions and rules that we
had to adhere by. One being the total capacity of people in the room we were
having the event in. Because of the cap size we had to adjust our event.
Constraints definitely happen, especially in stuff where you have to plan events. There are just so many factors that have to be accounted for, especially those internal and external constraints. Especially with planning, money and finding a place to do it is always tricky, definitely if it is for a lot of people. There are so many times that are constraints hold us back. But, later on in the readings, a good way for problem solving is to always account for as many alternatives as possible. Especially in small group cases, because there are so many good ideas that can bounce off one another to help overcome some of the constraints.
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