Roy Benford comments:
>My view of boundaries is based upon information flows, ie when
>information does not freely flow between two people, it is evidence of
>the presence of a boundary between them. On this basis, a boundaryless
>organization would NOT have any non-disclosure agreements because such
>agreements define what I view as boundaries. Also, it would NOT be a
>public corporation listed on a Stock Exchange because the rules of
>listing again define what I view as boundaries, to prevent insider
>trading for example.
Should life be organized, Roy, only around ways of increasing "information
flows"?
I like my neighbors, like their children, like their cat, like their
garden.
Nevertheless, I want a boundary, a fence, between their property and mine.
I want their children and their cat to know where their property ends and
mine begins.
I do not want a world where there are no secrets, no privacy, where
everything I think, create, value has to be available freely to everyone
else in the world.
I think there is some meaning in the term "intellectual property," and I
would like to own some!
I want walls, boundaries, in my bedroom: there is information that should
not flow easily between the rooms: I do not want the boundaries in my
house torn down, do not want to live in a house without walls.
The poet Robert Frost put the paradox of wanting the walls down, and yet
needing them in his poem that included two lines:
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall"
"Good fences make good neighbors"
Steve Eskow
--Steve Eskow <dreskow@corp.webb.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>