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Chapter Eight

The Second Principle:
Jumping Across Worlds

When your relationships with other people are built on cooperation, trust, and appreciation, you have the tantalizing possibility of undertaking extraordinary endeavors and Glowing. However, it’s not just your relationships with your closest colleagues that are so crucial. Think more broadly of the vast cloud of acquaintances, friends, and friends of friends who surround you. Recent estimates suggest that in modern societies, many adults have thousands of acquaintances, of which about one hundred can be contacted immediately to help out. Of these hundreds of acquaintances, you probably keep in regular contact with about twenty people, of whom perhaps three are close confidants. So when you think about how to Glow and to create, find, or flourish in a Hot Spot, think about the vast cloud of people you have to support you.

Recall the way that Frank was able to reach out into his network when faced with a particularly thorny task—and how Fred failed because he closed down rather than opened up.

In exploring this second principle, you will see what it means to make your network work for you—to jump across worlds. You will begin with a story from my town in Spain and then learn more about why variety of thought can be so exciting. Then you will complete the Glow Profile for jumping across worlds and hear how a group of people created extraordinary energy and innovation by being prepared and able to jump across worlds. Finally, you will take a closer look at the three actions that are crucial to your jumping across worlds.

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Action 4 Being skilled at increasing the value of your networks and balancing your networks between acquaintances and close friends—who are similar to you—with broader connections to people who are very different from you. To understand that sometimes the most interesting and most innovative ideas come from people whom you barely know and who are very different from you.

Action 5 Broadening and extending your networks by being skilled at jumping across the boundaries that constrain you. Allowing serendipity in your life and being prepared to meet new people and take the untrodden path to broaden your experiences.

Action 6 Being adept at finding and moving to boundaryless places, knowing how to avoid the traps of the Fortress and instead finding teams and places to work that encourage and enable you to jump across boundaries.

When I asked people like Frank who Glow what it meant to jump across worlds, this is what they said of their experiences:

The opposite is Fred’s experience. Instead of opening up and reaching out, he closed down and became a Fortress. This is how people described being in a Fortress:

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It’s easy to build walls around us—they can make us feel safe. The problem is that a Fortress is as much a prison for those inside as it is a protection. Fortresses can keep you safe—but sometimes jumping out of them can make you feel great and open you up to new ideas and innovation. To illustrate this, let me tell you a little story about a time when I Glowed.

When Two Worlds Meet: A Chocolate Story

Much of my thinking and writing takes place in my house in Spain. The town that surrounds me is an easygoing place where I tend to bump into people who are rather different from me. My opportunities to meet others are helped enormously by the lack of cars in the town and the number of pedestrian streets. I, like many of my neighbors, do not have a car and travel everywhere in town on foot. The combination of the warm Mediterranean climate, the streets filled with walkers, the numerous tapas bars where lighthearted banter takes place, and the rather odd mix of people seemingly blown from across the globe makes this a wonderful place for just roaming and conversing. When I am in this town, I become what the French writer Baudelaire called a flâneur. This is a wanderer, a person who simply walks around a city with little idea of where the journey will take them, being simply interested and inquisitive. As a consequence of my being a flâneur in my small town, I tend to spend my time with people who are very different from the people I meet in London, where the gray skies, dense traffic, and isolated homes seem to serve as barriers to my meeting people different from me.

So imagine for a moment me walking one fine morning through the narrow cobblestone streets of this medieval town, smiling and chatting as I buy my bread and drink my coffee. During my morning journey, I meet a friend who invites me to have coffee with some friends of hers. One of these people I then have coffee with (having coffee seems to be important to the life of a flâneur) is Oriol Balaguer, a man from Barcelona who is rapidly building a reputation for himself as one of the most creative chocolate makers of his generation.

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So here I am in Spain, jumping across worlds. I am jumping from my normal world of academics and book writers into quite a different one, the world of chocolate makers. When two completely different worlds like these collide, the results can be great fun, very innovative, and wonderful opportunities to Glow. At the time I met Oriol, I was thinking about the principles at the heart of Hot Spots and of Glow. As a result of our collision of worlds, I am today the proud purveyor of chocolates that symbolize the principles of Glow! In each box there are four gorgeous chocolates, each filled with a center flavored with an ingredient reminiscent of the Glow principles: the sweetness of cooperation (flavored with vanilla), the surprise of jumping across worlds (flavored with sea salt), the power of ignition (flavored with wasabi mustard), and finally a chocolate that has a filling which seems to explode in your mouth—creating a wonderful sense of Glow. It’s a small episode in my path to Glowing, but it neatly illustrates how jumping across worlds can bring both joy and innovation. I have great fun when I talk about energy and innovation to groups of people and ask them to eat the corresponding chocolate as we talk of each principle. Who can easily forget a concept like Hot Spots and Glowing when you have thought about it, talked about it, and tasted it all at the same time!

For me this is a classic case of creating the conditions to Glowing. I had time to wander (unusual in my normal high-paced London schedule but more likely in my Spanish sojourns), and I was in a context that encouraged me to meet unusual people.

Over and over I have discovered that to Glow you need to give yourself time to seek out people who are on the borders of their own world and on the thresholds of other worlds. Like me in my Mediterranean town, people who Glow do so by discovering fascinating people as they move around, and by meeting people by pure chance. And it’s not simply people like me, who often work from home, who can learn to Glow; as you will discover, even the most hierarchical organization offers opportunities to reach out to others.

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These new ideas rarely surface if you simply stay in your own world, with people who are similar to you and with whom you are close friends.

What’s Going On in Your Head?
A Word About Variety

What happens when you jump across worlds? Why was it that Oriol and I, and others who are prepared to jump across worlds, feel that we are Glowing? Often when you work with other people who are very similar to you, you go through a process of homogenization whereby you both become more and more similar and end up with mediocre and average ideas. However, when you jump across worlds, each person can contribute something unique. It is this combination of “uniquenesses” that is the magic of Hot Spots—and what lets you Glow.

To understand more about this combination of uniquenesses, let’s go back to me and the chocolate maker Oriol. Each of us has our own unique way of looking at the world. We have our own way of seeing situations and our own way of interpreting what we see; we can then generate our own unique solutions to problems (this has been termed heuristics); and we have our own unique way of predicting what we believe will happen.

Let’s take a closer look at heuristics. If you think about your life and your work you will see that over time you have created a way of looking at your world and deciding to act in it. These ways of looking—or heuristics—are developed through your past experiences. So your heuristics are influenced by such factors as whether you are a man or a women, your culture and the country you have grown up in, your religious beliefs, and your education. They are also influenced by your life experiences and what you have learned from others. Your personally developed rules and ways of acting become the rules you use to define your world. Heuristics can range in sophistication from simple rules of thumb—“if you feel cold, put on more clothes”—to more sophisticated—“this is how you go about editing a book.”

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The impact of heuristics on creating Hot Spots and learning to Glow can be described in this way:

Note that a diverse collection of heuristics is not always what you need. For example, you don’t need cognitive diversity if you are deciding how to mop the floor or serve burgers. But when your work is complex—as it often is—then cultivating diverse networks trumps just staying close to your own group who are similar to you. It pays to jump across worlds.

To get a better idea of what this means to you, let’s play this out and see how it evolves. I am going to begin with a very simple example, and then we can circle back to the example of the chocolates.

Let’s imagine that I am working with a colleague at London Business School. Professor Rob Goffee and I have been asked to create a new leadership program. As we begin to share ideas, both Rob and I are bringing our own perspectives about situations, our own unique ways of interpreting what we see, of generating solutions to problems, and of predicting what we believe will happen. Let’s imagine that I bring seven heuristics to the challenge of designing a new leadership program. (By the way, the figure seven is not arbitrary; research reveals that seven is the number of heuristics we typically work with.) Let’s call my seven heuristics

A B C D E F G

For example, heuristic A is a heuristic I use that is a rule of thumb whereby I assume that senior executives like to mix with their peers—so when in the past I have designed an executive training program, I always make sure I bring business leaders to present to participants.

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Now let’s consider what heuristics Rob will be bring to the problem. Like me, he has a doctorate, we are about the same age, we both write books, and we are both British. There are two major differences between us—Rob is a man, and he is trained as a sociologist; I am a woman and am trained as a psychologist. The heuristic set that Rob brings can be defined as

B C D E F G H

Thus Rob and I share many of the same rules of thumb about how to proceed with the design of the leadership program. However, Rob does not have heuristic A (senior executives like to mix with their peers), but he does have heuristic H, which I don’t. Heuristic H says that successful executive programs build networks back into the executive’s workplace—so when in the past Rob has designed an executive program, he always makes sure he uses 360-degree feedback.

Now let’s imagine that Rob and I are working together to design the program. Our combined heuristics would look like this:

Lynda’s heuristics: A B C D E F G

Rob’s heuristics: B C D E F G H

Lynda and Rob’s heuristics: A B C D E F G H

So when Rob and I work together, we each bring one unique heuristic (I bring A and Rob brings H), and together we have eight heuristics. That means that as we proceed, we have a broader perspective than if we worked completely on our own. That’s why teams of relatively savvy people almost always come up with better solutions to a problem than a single expert. The question is whether Rob and I are sufficiently different from each other to really Glow as we work together. It’s possible, but it’s unlikely that we would create a real Hot Spot of energy and innovation around this task, simply because we are too similar. So although we will find it very easy to work with each other thanks to our similarities, chances are we will produce something that is similar to programs we have designed before. We will both stay in our similar worlds and are unlikely to achieve the creativity or innovation of a Hot Spot.

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Now let’s take another look at the challenge of designing an executive program. This time, instead of pairing me with Rob, let’s pair me with Oriol, the chocolate maker from Barcelona. Recall that he has been trained in chocolate, is Spanish, works in a highly creative community in Barcelona, and is an entrepreneur. So let’s describe the heuristics by which he lives his life as

G J K L M N O

Oriel’s heuristic G says that you should be as creative as you can whenever possible.

Now let’s imagine that Oriol and I began to get to know each other and decided we wanted to work together to develop a really innovative way of developing leaders. The combination of heuristics we would bring to the task is as follows:

Lynda’s heuristics: A B C D E F G

Oriol’s heuristics: G J K L M N O

Lynda and Oriol’s heuristics: A B C D E F G J K L M N O

We both share a heuristic about being creative (G), but in all other ways, we are completely different—in fact, together we bring thirteen heuristics to bear on the problem. The bad news, of course, is that because Oriol and I have so little in common, it may be difficult for us to relate to and understand each other, and Oriol has no experience whatsoever in the task at hand. That’s why the skills for jumping across worlds, which we will explore in Action 5 (Chapter Eleven), are so crucial. But imagine how exciting it would be if Oriol and I could find an igniting vision or question toward which we could both work! The result we could come up with would be so much more interesting. The good news of the thirteen heuristics is that faced with a complex task, a big question, or an exciting vision (all crucial for the ignition of Glow), these thirteen heuristics provide a broader spread of possibilities than the set of seven heuristics each of us brought to the task.

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The lessons from this short foray into heuristics are clear: you should seek out people with diverse experiences, training, and identities that translate into diverse perspectives and heuristics. To do this, you have to be able to jump across worlds.

The Glow Profile

Before we take a closer look at developing the requisite abilities, complete the jumping across worlds portion of the Glow Profile to gain a deeper understanding of your current situation.

Profiling the Second Principle: Jumping Across Worlds

The rating scales in Figure 8.1 will help you determine your own beliefs regarding jumping across worlds, how the members of your immediate team or community work together, and how your wider community, business, or organization behaves.

Respond to each statement by circling your reaction on the 5-point scale, as follows:

5 = agree completely

4 = agree somewhat

3 = neither agree nor disagree

2 = disagree somewhat

1 = disagree completely

Once you have responded to all the statements in Figure 8.1, add up your ratings in each section; they will range from 9 to 45.

36 to 45 = high

26 to 35 = moderate

9 to 27 = low

Do I naturally jump across worlds?

I have worked in more than one business in my career.	5	4	3	2	1
I have worked in more than one country in my career.	5	4	3	2	1
I have worked in more than one function in my career.	5	4	3	2	1
I always try to meet people outside my immediate work group.	5	4	3	2	1
It is important to me that I have networks outside the company.	5	4	3	2	1
I really enjoy being with people who are different from me.	5	4	3	2	1
I am good at appreciating differences in others.	5	4	3	2	1
I enjoy joining communities outside of work.	5	4	3	2	1
I like to leave time for the unexpected.	5	4	3	2	1

Does my team naturally jump across worlds?

The people on my team are from many different backgrounds.	5	4	3	2	1
On my team, it is normal to seek ideas from outside the team.	5	4	3	2	1
Members of my team often introduce me to people in their wider network.	5	4	3	2	1
On our team, we really appreciate the differences between us.	5	4	3	2	1
Our team works closely with people from other functions or businesses.	5	4	3	2	1
On my team, partnerships with people outside the company are very important.	5	4	3	2	1
On my team, it is normal to take time to meet other people.	5	4	3	2	1
On my team, we work hard to communicate what we do with the wider community.	5	4	3	2	1
Members of my team are always looking for ways to broaden their networks.	5	4	3	2	1

Is my wider community, business, or organization naturally boundaryless?

People are encouraged to work closely with people on other teams.	5	4	3	2	1
It is the norm for people to have careers that go across more than one function or business.	5	4	3	2	1
My boss encourages me to meet people from other parts of the business.	5	4	3	2	1
Executives make it a point to introduce me to their networks.	5	4	3	2	1
Part of my pay is dependent on whether I have worked with other teams.	5	4	3	2	1
There are many opportunities to share knowledge with the wider community.	5	4	3	2	1
We are encouraged to join networks related to our areas of interest.	5	4	3	2	1
There are many opportunities, such as conferences and workshops, for me to associate with people from other parts of the business.	5	4	3	2	1
We are encouraged to develop strong working relationships with suppliers and partners.	5	4	3	2	1

FIGURE 8.1 Jumping Across Worlds in the Three Areas of Your Work Life

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The Glow Profile

FIGURE 8.2 Your Jumping Across Worlds Profile

Now move to the Glow Profile in Figure 8.2. In the “jumping across worlds” segment of the figure, use different colors or a coding scheme such as the one shown to indicate the extent of jumping across boundaries in the three areas of your work life.

Interpreting the Jumping Across Worlds Profile

Take a look at your jumping across worlds profile, and select the type that is closest to yours.

Profile Type	Your Score	Team or Community Score	Wider Community Score
A	High	High	High
B	Moderate or High	Moderate	Moderate
C	Moderate or High	Low	Low
D	Low	Moderate or High	Moderate or High
E	Low	Low	Low

Profile Type A: Your score for jumping across worlds is high, and
so are the scores for the team and the community

You are a natural at jumping across worlds. You instinctively take a broad view of the world, and you have developed the skills of appreciating others and working with people who are different from you. You will work well in a Hot Spot and have the potential to Glow brightly

Your natural capabilities for jumping across worlds are reflected in your team or community, which has a boundaryless way of looking at the world and has developed the skills of establishing broad networks and working with people who differ in many respects.

Your organization or business is also a naturally boundaryless place where people are comfortable with diversity. Senior executives support others to establish broad networks and are prepared to introduce people across the various worlds of the company. The organization has also developed practices and processes, such as the way they manage careers and pay, that encourage people to jump across worlds.

Actions to Take You are in a great situation and have a wonderful opportunity to Glow and to find and flourish in Hot Spots. Review Actions 4, 5, and 6 (Chapters Ten, Eleven and Twelve) to ensure that there is not more you could be doing. Your main action is to look at your analysis of cooperative mindset to ensure that you have sufficient cooperation to make the most of these networks and at your analysis of igniting latent energy to be sure that the potential energy of jumping across worlds is able to be ignited.

Profile Type B: Your score for jumping across worlds is moderate
or high, and the team and community scores are moderate

If your score is moderate, your skill at jumping across worlds could be more developed, but you have the potential to master it, and taking action can develop this potential. If your score is high, you already have well-developed capabilities in this area. Take a look at Action 5 with your colleagues (see Chapter Eleven) and as a group determine the one or two actions that will make a real difference.

Actions to Take You have the great advantage of being a natural at jumping across worlds and now need to engage with others to encourage them to become more capable. Your first action is to engage them with these concepts—join with your colleagues as a learning group and discuss how to become more boundaryless.

Profile Type C: Your score for jumping across worlds is moderate
or high, and the team and community scores are low

You are a natural at jumping across worlds, you have a naturally broad way of looking at the world, and you have developed the skills of appreciating others and working with people who are different from you. However, you are closed up in a Fortress where the people around you don’t celebrate working with different types of people and developing networks outside the group.

Actions to Take You can support the team by sharing these diagnostics and engaging in Action 5 (see Chapter Eleven). Or you can choose to work less with this team and find projects and teams that are more boundaryless or a wider community or organization that is more in sync with your own values. If you decide to take this action, explore Action 6, finding and moving to boundaryless places (see Chapter Twelve).

Profile Type D: Your score for jumping across worlds is low, and
the team and community scores are moderate or high

Until now, you have not valued working across boundaries and jumping across worlds. But by remaining like this, you face the possibility of narrowing your options and reducing your capacity to be innovative and ultimately to Glow.

However, you now find yourself in a place where the people around you are prepared and willing to take a chance and jump out of their immediate networks. You have an opportunity to watch what they do and learn from their habits and skills.

Actions to Take You are in a great position to build your boundaryless skills and habits because you have around you people who work across networks. So take a closer look at Action 4 (Chapter Ten) to see how your current network is playing out—and what competencies you need to develop now to support broader networks. Then look at Action 5 (Chapter Eleven) to identify the specific actions you can take to find activities that will build your capabilities for jumping across worlds.

Profile Type E: Your score for jumping across worlds is low, and so are the scores for the team and the community

Have you noticed that you are becoming isolated from people outside your immediate group? The challenge is that it will be difficult for you to create Hot Spots of energy or innovation and to Glow because you don’t meet enough interesting people to spark your imagination. Your team has very strong internal boundaries, and the focus is inward rather than outward. If you try to breach these boundaries, you may be branded as a traitor and not supportive of the team. This is a team that could very significantly reduce your capacity to Glow.

Actions to Take First, you have to build your own capabilities for jumping across worlds. Take a look at Action 4, increasing the value of your networks (Chapter Ten), and Action 5, jumping out of the boundaries that constrain you (Chapter Eleven), to see how you can do this. Then you have two choices: stay and work on reducing the boundaries, or find a more receptive team. If you decide to leave, take a close look at Action 6, finding and moving to boundaryless places (Chapter Twelve), to make sure you don’t make the same mistake again.

Key Points in Chapter Eight
The Second Principle: Jumping Across Worlds

To Glow, you need the excitement and energy of meeting people who are very different from you. The story of the chocolates illustrated the innovation that can come out of very different people meeting in a cooperative way. When people meet, they bring their own ways of looking at the world (heuristics). It is this cognitive diversity that can create unique combinations.

In this chapter the Glow Profile helped you see where you stand with regard to your own attitudes and skills, your team’s attitudes and competence, and the extent to which your company or community encourages you to jump across worlds. From the profile you are able to determine which profile type is nearest to your own:

Profile Type A You, the team you work with, and your wider community are very adept at jumping across worlds and creating boundaryless conditions, which creates a marvelous foundation for you to Glow.

Profile Type B You, your team, and the wider community are skilled in some aspects of jumping across worlds, which suggests that Action 5, jumping out of the boundaries that constrain you, will be crucial.

Profile Type C You are fairly adept at jumping across worlds but find yourself in a Fortress with high walls , which suggests that you need to think seriously about taking Action 5, jumping out of the boundaries that constrain you

Profile Type D You are not a natural at jumping across worlds but find yourself surrounded by a relatively boundaryless team or community, which presents a terrific opportunity for you to learn from others. Take a look at Actions 4 and 5 to determine how to increase the value of your networks and to create more boundaryless working.

Profile Type E Neither you, your team, nor the larger community values jumping across worlds, which places you in a Fortress. Think about the effect this is having, particularly on innovation, and together work on all three actions to increase the value of your networks and create a place that is more boundaryless and encourages reaching out to others.