From Networking to Boundary Spanning

In "From Networking to Boundary Spanning: How You Can Get Results Inside Large Organizations," Kitty Wooley, M.A., PMP, shares the techniques, mindset, and self-talk she practiced for forty-five years to ignore silos and refine her ability to build bridges at work. After nearly a decade in college administration, Kitty began working at the U.S. Department of Education, where she remained for nineteen years. Positions in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., involved work as an institutional review specialist, risk specialist, and management and program analyst. While in government, Kitty wrote articles for "The Public Manager" and served on the planning committee for several Excellence in Government conferences. Additionally, she is the author of "Four New Models of Networked Leadership Development" in "Innovations in Human Resource Management: Getting the Public's Work Done in the 21st Century," published in 2009 by M.E. Sharpe—Vol. 8 in the National Academy of Public Administration book series, Transformational Trends in Governance and Democracy. Kitty is a member of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), where she represents Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming on ASPA's National Council. Through her own Senior Fellows and Friends network, Kitty has connected and convened a global network of motivated high performers since 2003. Twelve years into retirement, her boundary-spanning acumen generates more opportunity than ever. No matter who you are or where you are in your career, you can learn specific ways to improve your ability to work across boundaries in your organization and get results that matter. Readers from entry-level employee to executive will find helpful tips and suggestions geared toward their unique challenges here. The common denominator is the desire to have more opportunity and greater impact at work by making silos irrelevant, through the practice of boundary spanning that puts the mission first. As boundary spanners develop this expansive, niche capability, they increase their organization's collaborative capacity to solve hard crosscutting problems. In the meantime, their career networks quietly grow and flourish.