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Chapter Twelve
ACTION 6
Finding and Moving to
Boundaryless Places
People who Glow are adept at finding and moving to boundaryless places. They know how to escape from the Fortress and connect with teams and places that encourage them to grow by creating opportunities to jump across worlds.
Look back at your profile in Figure 8.1. If yours is Profile Type C, D, or E, you are currently with a team or a company that does not encourage you to jump across worlds—in fact, you could even be holed up in a Fortress with high walls around you. The ability to Glow is within you, of course, but it is also dependent on the context you are in—the friends and networks you have and the community, organization, or business you are working in.
Recall that in Action 3 you reflected on what it is like to be in a place where there is little cooperation and considered what it would take to become skilled at understanding and acting on the “smell of the place.” The same is true of jumping across worlds. If there are big walls around you, you may find it mighty hard to scale them; you feel as if you are trapped in a Fortress. So this chapter is about how in the short term to really make the best of where you are now while also in the longer term learning to spot and then join places that are boundaryless.
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In the Short Term: Making the Most
of Jumping Across Worlds
You will be surprised at how much potential there is to jump across worlds— even in a high-walled Fortress. Here are seven actions you can take right now to make the most of your current opportunities.
Actions to take now to jump across your current
boundaries
Action 6.1 Pursue a boundary-crossing career path. Careers come in two shapes. There are highly specialized jobs where you need to focus on competence and knowledge in a single tightly defined area; typically, these careers provide you with very little opportunity to cross boundaries. There are other career paths that encourage you to move across disciplines or functions. If you want to have the opportunity to jump across worlds, take the career path that has cross-boundary work built into it.
Action 6.2 Seek out mentors with wide, diverse networks. One of the best ways to create opportunities to jump across worlds is to align yourself with a mentor who has a wide network and who is prepared to share these connections with you and encourage you to jump across the different worlds the mentor has networks in.
Action 6.3 Make it known that you want to work in different functions or businesses. You will be surprised how many opportunities there are for you to join projects and task forces that cross boundaries. So find out what these are, and make it known that you want to broaden your experience by participating in them.
Action 6.4 Attend seminars and meetings outside your own group. A great way to jump across worlds is to find out how people who are different from you go about sharing knowledge. It could be that they meet at seminars or brown-bag lunches. Just by showing your face, you are more likely to be invited to participate in a shared activity with them.
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Action 6.5 Join communities of practice outside your immediate work group. Think back to communities of practice you considered in Action 5 (Chapter Eleven), and identify a couple that you are interested in outside your normal network.
Action 6.6 Volunteer for socially responsible projects. A quick and relatively easy way to jump across worlds is to volunteer to join projects and task forces in the community. Inevitably, these will involve people from different worlds and can provide a great opportunity for you to broaden your networks.
Action 6.7 Widen your social and sports activities. Another way of escaping a Fortress is to join social and sporting activities where the participants are drawn from a much wider community.
So there is much you can do right now—even if you are in a Fortress— to experience jumping across worlds. However, no matter how successfully you manage to push back the boundaries, over time it could well be that the walls will close in on you and reduce your capacity to Glow. So next time you decide on a job move, the opportunity to jump across worlds should be high on your list of selection criteria. You should be on the lookout for a team, business, or company that is boundaryless.
How are you going to do this? Think back to Action 3, acting on the “smell of the place,” explored in Chapter Seven. You will need the same sort of detective skills and a cool-headed, analytical, rational view of what the company has to offer. Here is how you can do this.
In the Longer Term: Moving
to Boundaryless Places
You want to be sure that your next job choice is more informed. Like many of us, you have probably in the past joined a company or accepted a project on the basis of rather superficial information. Perhaps you just accepted the first offer. So you may have fallen into a job that looked deceptively attractive but turned out to be a Fortress that depleted rather than replenished your resources.
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To avoid joining a Fortress again, you need to understand what is really going on in the company. Remember that most companies are adept at sales pitches; they have marketing gurus and brand experts whose job it is to tell you what they want you to know, and they may not advertise the sort of information you need. So be prepared to go beneath the surface of the glossy ads and the marketing spiel. Seek answers to the question “Will this place encourage me to jump across worlds?”
If you want to do some detective work on the company before you decide whether to join it, you will have to do some digging. Here are three strategies you can adopt, followed by five questions to ask.
Actions to take now to broaden your sources of
information
Action 6.8 Ask tough questions in the interview. When you are being interviewed for a job, make sure that near the end of the session you ask about potential career paths. That way you can glimpse whether people stay within their own boundaries of functions or businesses or whether they have opportunities to cross boundaries.
Action 6.9 Examine the career information. Look at whatever career information is available to see how the career paths of current employees have typically developed. What you are looking for here is that people have had the opportunity to move around.
Action 6.10 Seek feedback from friends or online. Use your networks to locate people who have worked or are working at the company, and ask their opinions. Alumni networks are often good places to begin. Or search online: current and past employees are posting more and more information about their experiences of working for various companies.
To give you more insight about this I have created five multiple-choice questions which provide more detailed information about the broad themes. These questions will help you discover whether the company is a Fortress or a place where boundaries are crossed and different worlds meet. The response options are arranged from most encouraging of jumping across worlds (a) to least encouraging (c).
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1. What is the typical career path of executives in this company?
If you want to know whether the company encourages the crossing of boundaries, start with the career path of the person you are talking with. It is likely that your interviewer’s experience will be reflective of what is valued in the company as a whole.
- Many executives have experience working in different sectors and businesses.
- Most of the executives spend their career with the company, although they do get an opportunity to work across a number of different businesses and functions.
- The executive has stayed in one function or business.
2. What development opportunities are provided
for high-potential employees?
One of the great ways of becoming adept at jumping across worlds is to have career opportunities that allow you to participate in various functions and businesses of the company. Beware of companies where the emphasis is on people staying within their own specialized areas without ever collaborating with people in other disciplines.
- There are a number of career practices that ensure people have the opportunity to work in many different functions and businesses of the company and to connect to people in other companies and communities.
- The career path ensures that you stay in the sector but work in different businesses.
- People typically stay in the same business or function.
3. How are job openings filled?
You are more likely to jump across worlds if you have an idea of what is going on in other parts of the business. If most of the selection decisions are made behind closed doors, it will be difficult for you to get sufficient information about what is available. It is better to join a company where all the jobs are posted so that you can apply for jobs outside your own part of the business.
- There is an open job-posting system in which all the jobs are advertised and anyone can be considered, regardless of the business in which they are currently located.
- There is an open job-posting system in which you may apply for a job if you are already employed in that business or function.
- Job vacancies are not advertised, and most placement decisions are made by senior executives.
4. How are projects and task forces staffed?
Working on projects and task forces that are outside your current area of expertise is a great way to develop your capabilities to cross boundaries and increase the span of your network. Again, what you are looking for is the opportunity to put your hand up when projects come up. If projects are always filled with people in the “old boys’ network,” you are unlikely to have a shot at them.
- Project and task force opportunities are advertised, and anyone can apply and be considered.
- Project and task force opportunities are decided by executives who look for candidates across all businesses and functions.
- Project and task force opportunities are decided by executives, and participants are chosen from within the business or function.
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5. What opportunities are there to get involved with
communities outside the immediate work?
Joining other groups and volunteering for communities of practice can play a crucial role in enabling and supporting you to jump across worlds. If you are in a company that encourages employees to join clubs and networks, this can significantly increase your capabilities.
- People are actively encouraged to become involved in activities outside their immediate work.
- People are allowed to become involved in activities outside their immediate work.
- People are discouraged from becoming involved in activities outside their immediate work.
Scoring is simple. If your answers are mostly a’s, this is a boundaryless place; jump at the opportunity to join. If mostly b’s, there will be opportunities for you to jump across worlds; just make sure you take them. If mostly c’s, this is a Fortress; it’s unlikely to be a place in which you can Glow, so don’t get locked inside.
Key Points in Chapter Twelve
ACTION 6
Finding and Moving to Boundaryless Places
It is important that you become adept at moving to boundaryless places and avoiding the traps of the Fortress. Instead find places where you can cross boundaries and jump across worlds. You can do this in the shorter term by making the best of where you are and in the longer term by learning to identify and then join places that are boundaryless.
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Making the Most of Jumping Across Worlds
There is potential to create broader networks in even the highest-walled Fortress.
Action 6.1 Pursuing a boundary-crossing career path
Action 6.2 Seeking out mentors with wide, diverse networks
Action 6.3 Making it known that you want to work in different functions or businesses
Action 6.4 Attending seminars and meetings outside your own group
Action 6.5 Joining communities of practice outside your immediate work group
Action 6.6 Volunteering for socially responsible projects
Action 6.7 Widening your social and sports activities
Moving to Boundaryless Places
You want to make sure that your next job move is more informed, and to do this you need to create a real understanding of the company or the community before you join it. Gather information about the company by taking these actions and asking tough questions.
Action 6.8 Asking tough questions in the interview
Action 6.9 Examining the career information
Action 6.10 Seeking feedback from friends or online