""We are dealing with a massive convergence of trends that have been building for some time," says John Seifert, CEO of Ogilvy North America. "The youth agenda and technological changes are just so dramatic that you have this extraordinary swing.""
"....the bigger priority is finding someone who can break down walls that exist inside firms and get people with different skills to work together."
"The lack of seasoned executives with both digital know-how and the knack for molding a cohesive creative team has caused some ad chiefs to extend their searches outside the ad business....They say they are looking to other industries such as film design and technology for new types of creative thinking." Photo by CPX Interactive
Boundary crossers not only inhabit multiple worlds. They know how to take the best of multiple worlds to come up with something bigger and better.
If I were twenty years younger, I would go back to school. I would return to my alma mater, Northwestern University, and enroll in the engineering school again (yes, again!), so I could learn about design and complex networks and product development.
"To serve as a hub and facilitator for path-breaking and relevant
research in the area of complexity science transcending the boundaries
of established disciplines."
As an example of the concrete benefits of boundary crossing in academia, engineering professor Seyed Irvani, who uses applied math to make supply chains more efficient, said this about his work with NICO:
"I was very excited because I was able to steal a concept from one discipline and bring it to another. I'm bringing the concept of complex systems and social networks to operations management, which hasn't been done enough."
The idea this researcher had "stolen" came from study done by sociologist Brian Uzzi, on how networks played a part in successful Broadway shows.
I attribute the pervasiveness of boundary crossing in Northwestern's engineering school to Dean Julio Ottino. I met with him several years ago and discovered that he's a boundary crosser himself. The tip off came when I noticed the office walls were adorned with his own abstract oil paintings. This was not paint- by-the-numbers stuff.
Yet NICO also points to how our world is changing. With complex systems, it's not enough to be a specialist in one area, isolated in one's efforts to find a breakthrough. We can and must learn from each other to solve today's problems. Boundary crossers facilitate this learning.
One of my favorite parts of the interview was when he talked about how new constructs emerge, because reality no longer fits how we previously defined the world. It made me think of boundary crossers and how the interesting stuff comes from "the third way," the hybrid that no one has previously thought of or maybe even needed.
I asked Dan what he saw on the horizon that will change how we think about careers. He provided statistics on the aging baby boomers-- never before in the history of the world, are so many people turning 60 years old, every day. What's amazing is this pattern will continue past 2020.
Turning 60 years old is a milestone for most people. Not ready to retire (if there really is such a notion anymore), yet clearly over the hump of building a career. Dan talked about how this situation pushes aside all the old boxes that we use to put people in and calls for something new to emerge.
That led me to bring in the idea of "encore careers", coined by Marc Freedman, author of the book, Encore, and founder of Civic Ventures. Freedman shows that there is a new chapter of our lives that didn't exist before--one where people are focused on giving back to society, after having had a "traditional" career in which experience and expertise accrued for decades. Neither retirement, nor straightforward job, this is "the third way."
Which is where boundary crossers come in. The third way is probably more natural to boundary crosser than others, because we can see beyond an "either/or" model to a "both/and" paradigm.
Oh boy, now we are getting into juicy territory! Reminds me of the "yes, and" of improv.
This is all to say that innovation happens in the white space between worlds, and that's exactly where boundary crossers can thrive.
My thanks to Dan Pink for his generosity in sharing his wisdom and engaging so thoughtfully with the audience. Here's a quick visual and audio wrap-up of the evening:
Sorry for the long absence and the late notice. For those of you who are in the Denver area, don't miss this chance to see Dan Pink speak on March 8 at 6:30pm.
If you've been following this blog, you'll know that Pink is the one who coined the term, "boundary crosser" in his book, A WHOLE NEW MIND.
Sponsored by the Northwestern Club of Colorado (event is open to the public), I'll be interviewing him about "Careers in the New Decade." Or rather, I'll be picking his brain about his underlying beliefs about the nature of careers, human beings and workplaces, and how things get more complicated (or simplified) during a recession. We'll cover ideas from all four of his books, including his newest book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.
Here's Pink giving a talk at last year's TED conference about the intrinsic motivation. He introduces many of the concepts that he talks about in Drive:
Again, to see Dan Pink speak live on March 8 in Denver, click here to register.
In a Wall Street Journal article, Landing a Job of the Future Takes a Two-Track Mind, I was struck by how it described the need to inhabit more than one world to land tomorrow's plum job. The article makes it clear that being a specialist in one area doesn't cut it. Instead, the advice is to combine expertise in one domain (e.g., your college major) with skills in "emerging trends." Examples: communications + social media, nursing + IT, financial analyst + risk management. Photo by greenforall.org.
This is good news for boundary crossers, who naturally move between more than one world. What worlds do you move between, where you have knowledge and expertise? And more importantly, how does the convergence of those worlds fit with the needs of the marketplace? This is the jigsaw puzzle of careers.
A Wall Street Journal article, "Physicist Makes "Big Bang" at Citi". Hamid Biglari's career highlights range from improving the efficiency of a fusion reactor to leading McKinsey's investment banking practice to helping restructure the financial services company, Citi, after one of the biggest government bailouts. He's a great example of a boundary crosser. Photo: Citigroup.
What struck me in reading the article was this quote, which speaks directly to the idea of second curves for careers:
"I've always believed the best time to reinvent yourself is when you're
on a high note as opposed to when in decline," he says. "Your options
are larger that way."
I couldn't have said it better myself. Unfortunately, human nature is to ride out the good times, staying comfortable and complacent. It's only in the bad times, on the way down, that starting the next curve becomes a priority.
Has it really been six months since I've posted here? My apologies for the sporadic blogging--it's a pet peeve of mine to start something and not continue with it.
While I haven't written about boundary crossing recently, the topic continues to pop up in my life. I see it with my coaching clients. Very often, they have another world outside of their day job that fascinates and compels them and makes time stand still. These other worlds tend to be more creative than the one that generates the paycheck--e.g., crafts, music, sports, writing. Photo by Sanjiv Vijay
The lucky ones are those who figure out early in life (before 30 years old) that they are meant to walk in two worlds and discover how those two worlds converge or how they can be a bridge. A few examples of people I've run into or read about:
A computer animation specialist who knew as an adolescent that he talents in both the arts and computer science. I met this twenty something at a happy hour. He currently works for a social networking site aimed at tweens. This same example was brought up in a math awards ceremony that I attended with my son. The speaker was the Lieutenant Governer of Colorado and she talked about how some of the best jobs of the future require right brain and left brain thinking, including computer animation. Photo by Ramona Forcella
A dramaturg. Say what? If you Google this term, you'll find the very unhelpful definition, "one who engages in dramaturgy." Wikipedia gives more: "Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage." I first heard about this discipline from a man, probably in his late thirties, sitting at my table for a wedding reception. He has a background in both German literature and theatre and was hired by a major theatre company, not only to find new plays to stage, but to give historical context and accuracy to ones they were producing. A dramaturg helps to bridge the worlds of literature and theatre. There are probably less than 50 working dramaturgists in the US and this person considered himself lucky to have fallen into this field when it was first starting.
Information-focused designer. This month's Fast Company magazine is their annual Masters of Design issue. One of the feature stories showcases the work of Lisa Strausfeld. She majored in art history and computer science and later got a graduate degree in architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. A core question that I imagine Strausfeld grappling with is this: "How do we present data in a visual way that uncovers new insights and engages the human spirit?" Her work spans a wide range of projects, from visual mapping of the relationship among terrorist attacks to creating a new site for the Gallup Organization. to developing the user interface for the One Laptop Per Child computer. Photo by BruceTurner
Some boundary crossers immediately find their sweet spot in work that has become mainstream, like computer animation. Others pioneer a field over a number of years after trying out different things. (Strausfeld started out building architectural models, took a job doing layout design for memory chips, before ending up at MIT's Media Lab.) And still others, like our friend the dramaturg, fall into a select group of specialists.
The important point here is that all successful boundary crossers embrace their gifts. They find ways to use all of their talents in their work, not just the ones that are more traditionally oriented to a job.
How do you walk in two or more worlds? What does the convergence of those worlds look like? How can you begin to use all of your talents in 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:
"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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
