Share your story about the book, the tools and resources beyond the book, or boundary spanning in action. In your story let us know which area it applies to from the following categories:
- About the book
- About the website
- Boundary Explorer ™
- Toolkit prototypes
- Boundary spanning in action
- Other
Hello all..I am in the conversation because of the work I do across boundaries and the work I do with diverse clients who work across boudaries. I am in the conversation because of my connection with Maxine Dalton of past years and my ongoing commitment to the work of CCL and close collegues there now. I have just taken delivery of the book and will stay in conversation as I read and ponder and share it with my colleagues and clients mostly “down under’ in Australia..Ken Gilbert
Ken, Chris Ernst here to say my colleagues and I are in the conversation with you! As you see in the book Acknowledgements, Maxine Dalton was the catalyst behind this work a decade ago. Please keep watch on the website as we’re uploading new tools and resources by the day, and are here to support all your boundary spanning endeavors.
Attended ILA Webinar today and have a 2 comments/observations:
1) I believe the most apt definition of a boundary from a leadership perspective might be that of “threshold” where different realities intersect. And it is at the threshold of different realities that creativity is spawned.
2) The heart of boundary spanning is less utilitarian than it is empathetic. Six practices without the “soul” of empathy easily digress into manipulation or technique.
(this comment from Thomas Sewerin)
I had a nice experience the other day, with the boundary spanning cards.
A large group of post-docs at Lund University were concluding a two year program and I was asked to comment on their life plans ahead in time. Brought the card decks for two purposes, one was to help them get a comprehensive view of the environment they aim to have a career in, the other was to see if there’s a mirror of the organization within themselves, boundaries between different places within, to be negotiated and bridged to fulfill career plans.
We had a good discussion.
One point they all agreed on what that the vertical boundaries are of another order than rest.
They are sort of primary, providing the frames for the rest. And I agree, often stressing the importance of frames for all other kinds of processes.
Has that been discussed in the community of boundary spanners, i.e. the primacy of vertical boundaries?
Thomas
Thomas, here’s my immediate response, but would like to ask a follow-up question before plunging in deeper.
Interestingly, empirically vertical boundaries are the least cited of the five boundary dimensions (vertical, horizontal, stakeholder, demographic, and geographic) in our research in terms of where organizations struggle the most, or in terms of “what keeps leaders up at night.” Yet, anecdotally and in conversation with executives, they loom large in terms of how vertical dynamics interact with the other dimensions.
Here’s a typical executive response – “After so many decades of hierarchy charts, we’ve figured out how to work up and down the hierarchy. Vertical boundaries are no longer a significant challenge for us. Today, the real challenge is how these legacy vertical boundaries continue to get in the way between horizontal groups that need to be collaborating, or with our external partners, or across our far-flung regions.”
So, Thomas, this seems to be a twist on your observation. Please say more. How do you see the primacy of vertical boundaries in organizational life today?
Below is an update from the field on the use of the Boundary Explorer tool in global contexts ranging from Ethiopia to Jamaica. Thanks for sharing Lyndon, and to all boundary spanners, please share your stories on boundary spanning in action.
Chris:
A few more countries where we have used BE and BSL:
Ethiopia: We worked with a group of 20+ small business bankers from across East Africa. Jennifer did the BE card sort activity and I wove BSL into a modified ColourBlind exercise (a variation that created horizontal and vertical layers). I have the exercise written down if anyone wants it.
India: We have been using the BSL framework in Leadership Essentials (LE) programs including a program in India in December with a social entrepreneurship network. We typically draw the model on a flip chart and explain it (supplemented with a visual in the participant workbooks). The cards are too expensive for these low-costs programs. A point we make is that much of what we do in LE models the three-part BSL process. For instance, with Visual Explorer, people pick their own cards as individuals, share them in a structured formalized way, and then we get into finding the intersections, which reframe our individual perspectives and shape a collective understanding.
Jamaica: Philomena and TZiPi did a LE program for an organization that trains government leaders in January. BSL was presented as one of the “leadership essentials” concepts.
Upcoming: We used BSL in a train-the-trainer program for a network called ANDE. These trainers are taking the LE program model forward to reach entrepreneurs in more than a dozen developing countries – Yemen, Senegal, Brazil, Chile, Kenya, Romania, China to name a few places. Also, BSL is part of a model for economic development we’ve created with RTI. In this model, we bring together government, business, and social sector leaders in a community to envision and work towards creating a common future. This program is scheduled for El Salvador in March/April.
Cheers,
Lyndon
Compassion International is a global organization dedicated to ministering to and breaking the cycle of extreme poverty in the lives of children. As such, we often struggle to span the boundaries of culture, power distance, education, etc.
Early this year several colleagues and I were introduced both to the book Boundary Spanning Leadership and then able to participate in a workshop conducted by David Horth. The workshop was designed to walk a group of strangers through the practices and processes outlined in the book as well as to educate us on those processes. It was a fantastic experience. We commented that while we knew were walking through the stages, the method was so disarming that we able to be both participants and observers at the same time.
So impressed were we, that we used the methodology and workshop to walk a group of our global operations directors through the exercises this week in an annual summit, held in Nicaragua. We designed the workshop both as a way to break the ice and lay a foundation of collaboration for the summit, but also as a tool to dig into some of our larger challenges. The session was a great success and we are considering ways to integrate these concepts more broadly across our organization as have long recognized the boundary challenges we face; now we have words to express and define those challenges as well as practical tools to help us span them.
Matt-Chris here. I value receiving your story, and value the important work that you are doing. Your comments capture a fundamental truth about the the book’s primary ideas – that the boundary spanning model of 5 boundaries, 3 strategies, and 6 practices capture fundamental, deeper, and universal dynamics in human relationships. All the model really does is provide, as you note, a language, a framework, and a set of tools to make these largely invisible dynamics, visible. Once you understand the framework, then you can apply it to a range of leadership challenges that require bringing wide-ranging groups together to achieve a higher vision or goal. Please keep in touch!
I am currently using BE and BSL in a number of client programmes for CCL. On a recent programme in Norway the participants were taking part in the Collaboration Game where each ‘team’ was being asked to improve the share value of the business. During all the rounds during the morning, all the table teams focussed on their own part of the business (they had been given no instructions about whether they could move about, join other table teams). At lunch, while having a buffet type meal, everyone was asking each other about their own teams, what was happening at their table, what they might be able to learn from each other, what strategies were being used. After lunch they went back to their own teams and completely forgot the conversations over lunch. Although they continued to add value to the business, we were able to debrief as to what extra value they could have added, had they continued their lunch time discussions back at ‘work’. It led to some very interesting discussions and actions! One senior manager immediately offered a ‘swap role’ to all the other colleagues in the room, many of whom were from different parts of the business as well as the World. We discussed the implications of spanning boundaries for the rest of the programme.
Appreciate your story Matthew. So true that nearly all organizational forces push leaders back into boxes, bounded mindsets, and siloed behaviors. Our built organizational environments – with functional groups separated by walls, geographic groups by distance, and management groups by levels – compounds an “out of sight, out of mind” dynamic. The six boundary spanning practices seek to create new spaces and patterns of cross-boundary interaction that counteract these powerful organizational forces. All of us need to learn new ways to tap into these cross-boundary spaces as sources for vital idea generation, innovation, and ultimately transformation.