Boundaries - Good, Bad, or Yes?

One of my favorite songs is by Pink Floyd, “Another Brick in the Wall”.

One of my favorite books is “Boundary Spanning Leadership: Six Practices for Solving Problems, Driving Innovation, and Transforming Organizations”, by Chris Ernst and Donna Chrobot-Mason.

You are probably asking yourself what do these two items share in common. Well, here’s what I think they share in common.

They both talk about boundaries.

First of all, some boundaries are needed. We need to have personal boundaries to protect ourselves, and to know when we are encroaching on other people’s space. For example, we shouldn’t constantly talk over someone.

With that said, there are some boundaries that are not beneficial. Take the above example. If we constantly talk over someone when they start talking, we are saying we don’t recognize them in this space.

Or if we walk away from someone when they start talking, same thing.

Doing this puts another brick in the wall. Each time we disregard, ignore, downplay, denigrate, or dismiss someone’s viewpoint or opinion, we are adding more bricks to the wall.

Taking it beyond the individual level, let’s talk about divisions within companies. If Marketing dismisses what Finance says, or deprioritizes their feedback, another brick in the wall. Or IT doesn’t listen to Product, another brick in the wall.

Pretty soon, we have walls that impede the flow that is necessary for survival.

Now for the good news. The book above can help us recognize and understand what boundaries are necessary and which one’s hinder us, and how to make boundaries work to support flow, respect and being agile when future challenges occur.