“One ship sails east, one ship sails west.
Regardless of how the winds blow.
It is the set of the sail and not the gale,
that determines the way we go. ”

— Ella Wilcox

Sociologist Paul Hiebert proposed that there are two major ways that the mind forms categories. One is a Bounded Set, and the other is a Centered Set.

Bounded Sets

Bounded sets have certain structural characteristics that force us to think in a certain way:

1. We list essential characteristics something must have to be within a set.
2. The category we just created has a clear boundary. The boundary allows us to make a distinction.
3. Objects in a bounded set are uniform in their essential characteristics.  For example, apples are 100% apple. They may have different sizes or varieties, but all apples are apple. We view people like us as essentially the same; there may be differences, but the core of what makes us distinct from them is the same.
4. Bounded sets are static. An apple remains an apple until it is no longer an apple. The goal of a static set is to get people into our category and share our bounds.

Centered Sets

A centered set occurs when we:

1. Define a center and the relationship of things to that center.
2. Recognize that division is only based on whether things are moving in toward the center or moving away from the center.
3. Understand that objects within the set are not categorically uniform. Some may be near the center or far from the center but, nonetheless, still moving toward the center. As a result, each object is considered individually. There are no reducing objects to a single, common uniformity.
4. Maintain dynamic sets. Objects are in constant motion with varying pace with the ability to change direction.

Consider your company. Most companies are by definition a bounded set: You have a Board and policies and employees. Within the larger bounded set are any number of other bounded sets: IT, HR, Marketing, Finance, Production, etc.  In other words, a typical company is defined by a number of boundaries. This is how a company exists.

Until it wants to do something.

Bounded set mentality is at the heart of initiative failure, is at the core of change resistance, and is the weight that slows progress toward a crawl. Bounded sets are wonderful for efficiency, and lousy for agility and innovation.

Bounded sets foster territorial thinking. Proposals are evaluated by sub-bounded sets as to whether the thing proposed fits within their category. In a bounded set, digital transformation or cyber-security or computer issues is an “IT thing.” In bounded sets, we think categories, we operate categories, we defend categories, and we very rarely, actually and functionally, come together toward one dominant idea. At best, sets cooperate with other sets along parallel tracks, only to retreat and reclaim their particular sets as soon as is reasonably acceptable.

Centered sets allow far more to be accomplished. The key is to define the center. You must know what your business is not who your company is. Today, the center is very easy to establish: Digital Transformation. (I recently read someone proclaim that digital transformation is a buzz word. It’s not. There is nothing trendy about it, because it is being driven by the very market we serve. Buzz words and trends are inside-out; we start something, others do it, then it dies out. Market-driven transformation is outside-in; a new reality exists we must step into or consequences will come – loss of business).

In a centered set, digital transformation, the question for entities within the company is “Where am I in relation to the center, and how do I make sure I am moving toward it and not away from it?’

Some C-Suites and their teams will be nearer the center than others. They will move at different paces along the way. But at no time must they be found to be moving away; and if you are not moving toward, there is no stationary, and you are moving back. Passive aggressive is quickly exposed in centered sets; they thrive in bounded sets.

If you have been frustrated with implementing change and transformation, I can guarantee you have allowed yourself to operate in a bounded set: Companies do it, governments do it, philosophies and politics do it. And we know it’s being done, because not a lot gets done, at least not a lot of what matters.

Here are the checkpoints you need:

1. Establish your center.
2. Help each part define where they are in relation to the center.
3. Coach each part to define what it means to move toward that center.
4. Allow freedom of pace. One group may want another group to slow down or speed up. Expectations don’t matter; real and appropriate movement does.
5. Foster collaboration. Parts need each other to help move forward.
6. Celebrate movement. The race is not to the swift; the battle is against the static.