Moving Boundaries

Moving boundaries: yourself

Resilience

You adapt quickly to changing circumstances or new opportunities and you are not deterred by obstacles or setbacks.

What do you do?

Remain optimistic in the face of obstacles, focus on what you can influence, and accept what is outside your control.
Adjust your goal or approach if your initial plan turns out to not be feasible.

What do you find difficult?

“I find it difficult to switch gears when things don’t go as expected.”
“How do I remain positive when faced with things I have no control over?”

Learning agility

You are curious about other approaches and ways of working, you try them out and learn from it.

What do you do?

Look for new ideas, knowledge, and experience from various sources (colleagues, external, online).
Be open to new experiences and suggestions from other people, and try these out.
Explore successful projects or approaches to find out why they work and how you can apply them in your work.
Openly admit mistakes or things not working out as planned, evaluate, and see what you can learn from them.

What do you find difficult?

“I find it difficult to make time for activities that are not immediately required for my daily work.”
“I see that some things within our department or my work don’t go well, but I don’t know how to change them.”
“I prefer to avoid mistakes, and when I do make mistakes, I don’t like to admit it."
“I’m used to doing my work in a certain way, and the idea of having to change this makes me feel anxious.”

Challenge status quo

You challenge the status quo when you see opportunities for innovation or improvement and come up with new ideas.

What do you do?

Ask yourself openly why activities or processes are done in a certain way.
Proactively contribute ideas or solutions for problems or opportunities you see.
Come up with some new ideas, explore which of these ideas has the most chance of success, and develop them into a plan.
Question assumptions or things that are self-evidently ‘the way things are done here’ if you believe there is a better or smarter way.

What do you find difficult?

“When things work well enough, I don’t really think about what could be done differently or better.”
“I don’t think of myself as a creative person with innovative ideas; I’m more of a doer.”
“I do have ideas on how to improve things, but I’m hesitant to share them."

Moving boundaries: yourself

Entrepreneurship/Courage

You identify opportunities and potential for development and improvement, act on them and dare to take calculated risks.

What do you do?

Put forward a daring new approach, even if there is a chance that it will be rejected.
Set challenging goals for yourself and others that have a real chance of failing.
Actively approach colleagues or others outside the organisation with an interesting idea or proposal.

What do you find difficult?

“By nature, I’m not someone who finds it easy to take risks.”
“I only initiate things when someone else indicates that it is important or approves of me doing so.”
“The goals I set are realistic, but also a bit on the safe side."

External view

You draw on external knowledge and inspiration and involve people and expertise from various disciplines in your own ideas, proposals and projects.

What do you do?

Be curious and look for ideas from a variety of different and less obvious sources.
Stay informed of external developments that are important to your field of work.
Invite people from outside the organisation to share knowledge and inspiration.

What do you find difficult?

“I’m too internally focused, and not sufficiently aware of trends and developments in the outside world.”

Stimulate learning

You stimulate others to experiment, make room for mistakes and provide others with learning opportunities and new experiences.

What do you do?

Respond enthusiastically to new or unusual ideas from other people.
Give others interesting and challenging tasks.
Show understanding when mistakes are made and use these examples as a learning experience.
Challenge others to do something in a very different way than they are used to.

What do you find difficult?

“I say that mistakes are allowed, but still act irritated or disappointed when it happens.”
“I find quality and predictability important and am unlikely to experiment with something new unless I’m sure of what it will bring.”
“When faced with an unusual idea, I tend to focus on why it will not work, as opposed to how it might work."

Agile working

You translate an idea or plan into small steps, try things out and use feedback to improve and adjust where needed at each step.

What do you do?

First thoroughly map needs and desired outcomes, before creating a proposal or plan.
Use methods, such as ‘agile’, for working towards goals with colleagues in a flexible and structured way.
Test your concept or plan and ask for feedback at different moments, and adjust or change course where needed.

What do you find difficult?

“I prefer to wait before sharing my work or results with others until it is completely finished and I’m satisfied with the quality.”
“I could devote more time to understanding the needs of the users or target group of my plan, concept, or research.”

Moving boundaries: team

Dot on the horizon

You formulate an inspiring ambition and vision for the future together with the team and clarify how everyone contributes to this.

What do you do?

Share your high-level vision for the future and long-term goals for your team, group, or department.
Ask everyone in the team to provide input for the shared ambition and goals, and distill ideas and insights from this process.
Engage in dialogue with everyone in your team about what they find important and what shared goals they see and want to work towards.

What do you find difficult?

“My focus lies primarily on the results that we want to achieve in the short term and not so much on our direction for the long term.”
“I am surprised when it is unclear to someone how their own work contributes to what we do as a team.”

Guiding change

You involve people in shaping the change and clearly communicate the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of a change.

What do you do?

Talk to the team at an early stage about why and when goals or priorities change.
Involve the team in finding solutions for problems and in dealing with the practical aspects of the change.
In all phases of the change, emphasise why this step is important and needed and what people can expect.
Provide plenty of room and invite people to ask questions and express their concerns.

What do you find difficult?

“When priorities shift, or there is a new development, I don’t sufficiently involve my team upfront.”
“I find it hard to deal effectively when I get difficult questions or resistance from colleagues.”

Stimulate innovation

You share successes and acknowledge when people look beyond boundaries, seek new solutions and try these out.

What do you do?

Stimulate people to take initiative, for example by formulating relatively global assignments and providing room how to approach it.
Openly express appreciation when someone takes initiative or tries out new things, and emphasise the importance and impact of these initiatives.
Share and celebrate successes and innovations with the team and encourage desired behaviours.

What do you find difficult?

“I do give people compliments, but I don’t necessarily share this in the team with the other colleagues.”
“I mostly focus on achieving goals and could devote more attention to small successes and initiatives.”

Break down barriers

Where possible, you eliminate barriers to change and innovation for the team and provide necessary resources.

What do you do?

Make sure that the required knowledge, capacity, resources, and information are available for the team to do their work.
Oversee the situation in case of problems or blockages, see what needs to be done, and act swiftly and resolutely where possible.
Understand underlying problems and political ‘powers’ within the organisation and take these into account when making requests or proposals for solving problems.

What do you find difficult?

“I sometimes ask more from the people in my team than they can handle, and I’m not sufficiently aware of this.”
“I can get frustrated when something that is very important to my team is not possible because of a specific policy or procedure.”

Moving boundaries: organisation

From the outside in

You translate developments in society and your field of expertise into challenges and opportunities for your own organisation.

What do you do?

Look for sources of inspiration, and focus on external visions related to your own role or field of expertise.
Translate expected relevant social and political changes into consequences for your own organisational unit.
Sketch a clear vision of the future of your own department or organisation and its environment.

What do you find difficult?

“How do I turn the complexity and multiplicity of what is happening in the outside world into a clear and cohesive vision of what this means for us?”
“I don’t easily find inspiration in the outside world.”

Creating awareness

You create awareness about the need for change in the organisation and communicate the benefits of this for the future.

What do you do?

Anticipate future situations and take action to create opportunities or avert future crises that are not yet visible to others.
Engage in dialogue with people in the organisation concerning the need for movement or change, and use engaging language and examples in doing so.
Make room for other people’s perspectives and give them time to integrate what you share with them.

What do you find difficult?

“I don’t engage in dialogues about what we could do better or differently as an organisation.”
If I don’t yet have all the answers, I don’t feel comfortable talking about future changes.”

Inspiring vision

You develop and communicate an inspiring long-term vision for the organisation and explicitly link plans, goals, decisions or changes to it.

What do you do?

Create an ambition and vision for the organisation that engages and inspires people across departments, institutes, faculties, or units.
Indicate where opportunities and possibilities for the future of the organisation lie.
Take time to think about the long-term goals of your organisation and validate the clarity of your vision with your colleagues.

What do you find difficult?

“I would like to be more inspiring.”
“I find it difficult to get my vision and ideas on the agenda outside my own organisational unit.”