Boundary Crosser

Bringing All of You To Your Work

It's been awhile since I posted on this blog. While I haven't been specifically thinking about boundary crossing, I've been doing it! Check out my other blogs, Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Living and A Bigger Voice to see what I've been up to recently.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to get feedback on my coaching from a master coach--someone who "supervises" new coaches in training for a living.

I coached a volunteer client for 15 minutes. The master coach then gave me feedback. Two comments stand out in my mind:

Photo by dichohecho

"You were connected to yourself when you were coaching."

"You were using all of you in the coaching."

This is my hope for boundary crossers.

The first part, being connected to yourself, has to do with being comfortable in your own skin and not being self-conscious. You know who you are and you can draw strength from that.

The second part, using all of yourself, in whatever work you do, can be trickier, as many of you know. Let me give several examples, which hopefully will trigger ideas for your own situation.

1. The pieces of me that showed up in my coaching were intuition, playfulness, and what I call my "engineering mind." I can take the facts, combine with an inkling to understand what's really happening for the client, and then put a light touch on a serious topic. In the words of the master coach, I was able to "hold the client with lightness without being dismissive."
2. I have a client who heads up a successful leadership development company. He also has a love of music--making music with others, listening to music. One of the things we've been working on is how to bring that love of music into his leadership work, so that all of him shows up when he's working with clients. He's done some of this over the years but not purposefully.  In each instance, the client results were remarkable. I'm excited now that he sees this part of him as an asset to his main gig and he is looking at ways to fully integrate it in. He recently attended a workshop from a company that combines leadership with music, The Music Paradigm, which I'm sure has given him some new ideas.
3. I know of a software developer who specializes in computer animation. He works for a company that develops virtual worlds for kids (think Club Penguin.) Computer animation is a natural discipline for boundary crossers, because it relies on knowing both software development as well as the graphic arts. You have to be versed in both to be good at computer animation. Growing up, this person used to get frustrated when people told him he couldn't be good at both art and computer science (obviously, he was talking to inferior human beings.) Now, he's got the last laugh as the demand for his craft is growing. When he started out a few years ago, there were a handful of virtual worlds aimed at kids. Now, there are over 200. 

BTW--This is a great way to "recession-proof" your work.  The remarkable will win out over the mediocre in a down economy.

If you've been wondering how to bring all of yourself to your work, contact me. I'd love to give you a free consultation. Email me, carol [at] carolrossandassociates [dot] com or find me on Twitter (@carolross) or LinkedIn.

Social Media: Adventures in Boundary Crossing

My newest venture, A Bigger Voice, is taking me into new worlds. For a glimpse into the world of social media gurus, check out my posting on attending the Thin Air Summit in Denver.

My thoughts and feelings before attending the conference:

• Will I fit in?
• High anxiety: What if I'm stuck in a room full of geeks?
• A sense of adventure: What will I learn and who will I meet?

My thoughts and feelings after attending the conference:

• Yes, I belong! These are people like me.
• Gratefulness:  I connected with lots of cool innovators who are showing me new worlds (thanks, Patti!)
• An awareness of the importance of participating and being part of the larger conversation.

Boundary crossing isn't for everyone. And when it happens, it's really rewarding.

The Discomfort of Boundary Crossing

It's been awhile since I've posted here. My apologies for the long silence. I've been spending much more time on my two other blogs, Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Living, and A Bigger Voice. Which means I've been boundary crossing in the blogosphere.

I also did some boundary crossing yesterday, in person. I attended a networking event, a once a month luncheon with lots of suits--literally a sea of Baby Boomers in gray suits, who work in or service clients in Corporate America. The luncheon is hosted by a prominent athletic club, where club actually means wood paneled rooms and a hushed lobby. 

It's not my usual place to hang out. In my new role as a social entrepreneur with A Bigger Voice, I became friends with one of the organizers of this monthly luncheon. He is passionate about turning business people onto the SE world. So I go. And connect. And fit in as best a boundary crosser can. Most days, I can pass. I know the language, the customs, the values. The woman at the front desk tells me I can go up to the ballroom where the meeting takes place.

Yesterday was one of those days when I was feeling the mis-fit more than the fit. The other service providers either see me as competition (as a coach and consultant) or have no use for me (why would a banker need a coach?). The C-levels in the room (CEO, CIO, CFO, CMO) think of social entrepreneurs as Boulder's answer to management for a granola company. 

What's a girl to do?

These people don't read Seth Godin. They've barely heard of permission marketing. Forget understanding blogs. And yet, business is changing, even in their world.

So maybe there is a place for me after all. In bringing new media, new thinking, new models for working--to the suits.

Three Types of Boundary Crossers

When I think back on the kinds of boundary crossers that I've run into, they seem to fall into three camps:

1. Individuals who have had a successful career in one area and a passionate hobby in another world (e.g., software developer during the week and musician on the weekends)
2. Individuals who are starting a career in one area (less than 5 years into it) and find that while they can continue on the current path, they need a "tweak" to make it fit. An example is a civil engineer who wants to focus more on work oriented to sustainable building.
3. Individuals who have had multiple jobs in different areas and feel like it's been a patchwork of things that haven't led to a clear career path. An example is someone who has changed jobs every couple of years, with not a lot of connection to the past job or upward mobility in the new job with each change.

In all three cases, the gold lies in carving out your own unique path. Each of the three cases has its own challenges:

In Case #1, the opportunity is in cross-pollinating between the two worlds, usually from the passionate hobby to the successful career. These are usually people who have found enough in their career to satisfy the boundary crosser in them--enough variety, enough new learning, enough challenge. And there's always more.

In Case #2, the challenge is to find the courage to seek out something new, when the current job isn't all that bad. Change comes a lot easier when the current state is painful. Not enough pain, not enough incentive to give up something that feels secure. These individuals sometimes find themselves doing a dance between what they really want and what they are willing to settle for.

In Case #3, these individuals experience the pain of not belonging. Yet, they see clearly their value in bringing new perspectives to the task at hand. These boundary crossers also have the burden of being labeled a dilettante. Surviving in this mode takes political savviness as well as an understanding of the culture of the current employer. Of all the types of boundary crossers, these are the ones who benefit the most by finding their unique voice in the world, where their talents and interests fill a pressing need in the marketplace. This is the place of the entrepreneur and intrapreneur, inventing services and roles that didn't exist before.

Persistence, making your own luck, and plenty of trial and error are all useful for boundary crossers to find their way in the world.  Even more important is finding allies--people who "get" you, provide encouragement when the going gets tough, and help you flesh out that wild dream that's been nagging at you.

How does your situation mirror any of the three cases I've described? Or do you fall into another camp? What have you found to be especially helpful on your journey? Provide your comments below.

Crossing Boundaries is Worth the Risk

I'm convinced that our most pressing problems as a society will be solved by boundary crossers, because it takes multiple perspectives and approaches to understand complex issues. An announcement about David Yarnold's appointment as Executive Director of the Environmental Defense Action Fund, speaks to this point. Yarnold, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist turned environmental activist, was recently heralded by the president of Environmental Defense, as someone who "has shown great courage in completely crossing career fields -- something few people have the guts to even try -- and even fewer succeed at.”

Anatomy of a Boundary Crosser

In a written interview with boundary crosser, Karl Iagnemma, I found some great quotes that speak directly to what it's like to operate in multiple worlds. Iagnemma is a robotics researcher at MIT as well as an award-winning fiction writer.

One of the gifts of boundary crossers is being able to see patterns across disciplines. Iagnemma illustrates this with his description of the creative process, as it applies to science and writing: "The creative process is quite similar in both research—I think any type of research—and writing. Both start with a blank page and progress through formulating ideas and concepts, to refining these ideas, to finally getting the details right. So it's a process of increasingly structured creativity. And I've found that you get the same "micro-satisfactions" when you get individual elements right, and you get the same rush completing a major research task and completing a story. It's an uncanny similarity." Boundary crossers not only see patterns across disciplines, but they are able to leverage what they know from one world to improve what happens in another world: "When I first started writing, I didn't write about scientists at all. I think I wanted a break from that part of my world. But when I did start writing about researchers, I found the work that came out was much better than anything I'd ever done. And I think it was because I had a real investment and interest and deep knowledge of the material, of some of the issues that drive these kinds of people. At this point, I can't imagine not writing about researchers, because I'm able to find a little bit of myself in every character I write about. And that's, I think, the key to good writing." Boundary crossers are  ideally suited to explore the intersection of two or more worlds. Iagnemma talks about the natural questions that come from scientific research and fiction writing: "It is one of the central questions of my fiction, this coexistence of reason and passion, and the points in life where reason and passion collide. Research is a great vehicle to investigate it, because you have, on the surface, this rational, analytical discipline. But you also have people who are so invested in the research, so wrapped up in it, that they become extremely passionate. It's an interesting dichotomy." And finally, I love how Iagnemma talks about his life as a "slash," where it's not about either/or but rather both/and: "[Being a researcher and a writer are] different forms of enjoyment. Human beings have this depressing property; they can become desensitized to even the most pleasurable things. For me, being stimulated in radically different ways is great. It's wonderful to be able to do such different things on a daily basis." "For me, as a young writer-slash-researcher, there was always a perception that I would have to choose between doing one or the other, that the research community wouldn't take me seriously if I was writing, and that as a writer there would be no time to have an intense day job. But, you know, it's not true. There's time to do lots of things in life. And doing research certainly doesn't mean that you can't also be an artist or a musician or a writer or whatever else interests you. I hope that young people who are studying science won't get the sense that that's all that they can do, and that their minds will be closed to the arts." On his website for his books, I got a kick out of reading at the bottom of the page: "Click here for Karl Iagnemma's robotics-related webpage."

Crossing Between Cultures and Races

A friend points me to this article about a woman who grew up in both American Indian and white worlds. Lots of wisdom that seems to be ripe for cross pollinating between the two worlds.

I have said very little about boundary crossing between ethnic cultures. This is a bit odd, as that's part of what makes me a boundary crosser.  Recently, a friend asked me how I felt about my roots. And quite honestly not a lot came up for  me. Proud of the values of hard work and education. Not able to speak the language so disconnected in many ways. I am not immersed in my ethnicity in my daily life. Which makes me wonder what could happen if I were.

So that's the lesson here. To get the full benefit of  operating in multiple world requires immersion--not just assignment by skin color or race.

I'd love to hear from others who cross these boundaries every day and are immersed in both worlds.

Pattern Recognition in E-Commerce

The May issue of Fast Company magazine has an article, "Barneys and Friend," that highlights the talents of a genetics researcher to discern consumer online patterns for their email marketing.

Quote from the researcher, Sheldon Gilbert, whose academic history includes studying molecular biochemistry and biophysics at Yale and a stint at the Cornell Medical College and the Rockerfeller University Laboratory for Molecular Genetics and Informatics:

"Scientists understand how complex systems work. I'm a pattern hunter, so I created a system that was looking for patterns and was adaptive and self-learning."

Gilbert set up his own company, Proclivity, to apply his pattern hunting to commerce. I took a look at his site (nice, clean design, BTW) and one of the best things is this tagline:

Predict Behavior. Drive Revenue.

Entrepreneurial boundary crossers build new businesses....gotta love it.

The Science of Leonardo

An interesting article from Ode magazine, titled, "The Wow of Physics," points to a classic boundary crosser.  Fritjof Capra is a PhD physicist who uses Eastern philosophy with quantum physics to show how Leonardo DaVinci got it right on how the world really works, 500 years before anyone else. His book is The Science of Leonardo. To listen to a review of the book from NPR, click here.

A great quote from the article says it all:

" I was a research physicist by day and sort of a hippie by night. I was hanging out with artists, writers and filmmakers, and many of them were interested in Eastern mysticism. That struck me as a whole new way to understand the world."

A whole new mind at work.....

Standup Economist

Heard an interview on NPR last week with a PhD economist who does stand up comedy. His jokes incorporate his knowledge of economics. Just goes to show that boundary crossers create new niches all the time. Click here for the interview.