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In boardrooms worldwide, “doing more with less” has become the mandate of the moment. Trade wars, tariff hikes and economic uncertainty are forcing hard choices – whether that’s reducing overhead, downsizing or streamlining operating models. This is becoming more apparent in M&A context where organisations often need to adopt a “do more with less” approach ahead of integration to ensure ROI from the deal.

Naturally, doing more with less can feel like a struggle particularly against a backdrop of several turbulent years. Yet again we’re upping the ante, turning up the dial on the pressure cooker -and it hurts. But what if we’re thinking about pressure all wrong? What if constraint isn’t the enemy – but the catalyst?

When De Beers faced market crisis in 2008, they discovered something unexpected. The pressure didn’t break them, it transformed them. Under constraint, they reimagined their entire business model, creating a more agile organisation that thrived when conditions improved.

This isn’t just luck. Studies show that moderate pressure increases focus, accelerates decision-making, and triggers innovation. The key isn’t reducing pressure – it’s building the resilience to harness it.

Four Keys to Turning Pressure into Performance

1. Build Emotional Commitment – shift from Loss to Possibility

People who see pressure as a challenge perform better than those who see it as a threat (Lazarus, 1991). Netflix’s shift from DVD rental to streaming wasn’t just strategic – it required deep emotional resilience. They helped their team see the loss of their core business as an opportunity to own the future.

Quick wins:

• Run reframing challenges – spend 10 minutes during team meetings identifying the challenges for the week, then help individuals to reframe them as opportunities.
• Celebrate small wins to maintain momentum – carve out 15 minutes at the end of each week to do a public ‘shout out’ for a win of the week, ideally using it as an opportunity for personal recognition too.

Going deeper

• Leadership resilience training – train people leaders on how to lead through prolonged pressure and uncertainty; focus on ideas such as reframing language and Carol Dweck’s ‘yet’ to build a growth mindset
• Reduce decision fatigue by automating small choices, breaking big tasks into chunks, and limiting unnecessary meetings.

2. Rational Understanding – demonstrate control in chaos

Research shows teams operating at 80-90% capacity make better decisions and waste less time than those at 60-70%. Why? Because constraints force better choices and a fixation on what’s within our control. When Toyota faced supply chain disruptions, they focused exclusively on what they could influence. This clarity helped them recover faster than competitors who tried to control everything.

Quick wins:

• Spheres of control workshop with your team – reset on priorities and purpose then identify your “control points” – what you can truly influence – and build out plans to Stop, Start and Continue from there.
• Create a simple “Priority Contract” with each team member. One page that clearly states their critical priorities, what they can stop doing, and where they have decision-making authority. Then hold regular reviews to eliminate low-value work

Going deeper:

• Map your team’s actual capacity (not their theoretical capacity) – Find the sweet spot between stretched and snapped. Trial a new resource model then create an action plan to close the gap.
• Prioritise key skill development – As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi suggests ‘When pressure aligns with high skill level, people enter flow—a state of deep focus where they perform at their best.’  Identify gaps in team’s skillset and knowledge, then invest in top-ups e.g., 2-hour espresso sessions on set topics.

3. Collective experiences – winning together, failing together

Collective experiences help teams navigate high-pressure situations by fostering social support, shared resilience, psychological safety, and collaborative problem-solving, which reduces stress and enhances overall performance. When Airbnb lost 80% of their business overnight in 2020, they turned crisis into cohesion. They created transparent daily updates, shared decision-making, and made space for collective problem-solving.

Quick wins:

• Quality over quantity – with smaller budgets and limited time, make time together really matter. Invest in a few, short in-person experiences that build team spirit, embody the culture, and keep momentum.
• Use setbacks as collective learning opportunities – Openreach ran a ‘Fess up Fridays’ initiative where leaders shared their personal learnings in a group forum, sharing the blame and the learnings.

Going deeper:

• Co-create new ways of working – involve teams in a reset of your culture, behaviours and/or ways of working given the new team size and need to be more agile. Make it fun, engaging and creative building memorable positive shared experiences.
• Build cross-functional “pressure teams” – Break big challenges into 2-week missions, celebrate small victories publicly or create visible scoreboards that show progress.

4. Input and contribution: feedback and dialogue

Around 84% of employees consider psychological safety as one of the most valued aspects of the workplace; and it’s proven to be vital in reducing stress and building resilience. When Zara faced supply chain chaos, they amplified voices from the front line, demonstrating that their best solutions came from those closest to the problems.

Quick wins

• Create rapid feedback loops in weekly team meetings or with simple pulse surveys such as one question a week that reaches the entire team.

Going deeper:

• Run a simple psychological safety assessment within your team to identify barriers to speaking up
• Establish a champions network made up of a broad range of employees representing lower levels of the organisation to be your ear to the ground. Use them to co-create approaches and strategies for engagement and change

In today’s business environment, pressure isn’t going away. The winners won’t be those who try to eliminate or ignore it, but those who learn to harness it.

The question isn’t how to do more with less. It’s how to use constraints to unlock possibilities that abundance keeps hidden.