The Discomfort of Boundary Crossing

I  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…

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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: 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) Individuals who are starting a career…

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ABV Pilot Update

This week, the ABV team had wrap-up meetings with each of the pilot clients. It’s been rewarding to see how far each client has come, in different ways. And there are some common results that I’m observing: Cohesiveness. We asked each client to "tell their story" at the beginning of the pilot and then in…

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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,…

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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.…

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