ABSTRACT
Innovation and adaptation are viewed as distinct constructs. Innovation treats the existing paradigm as part of the "problem" while adaptation involves working within the confines or boundary of the known paradigm. It also highlights the importance of "destructive creation" and "creative destruction," not as a duality but as different points in a process in the tension between innovative and transformational potential. In this respect, authentic innovation involves assaults on the boundary of what is known and familiar. Beyond "acting out/' the declaration where many group relations consultations would essentially end, there is something about the action of crossing a boundary that creates and invites the beginning of new learning. When anything other than being held in a prescribed way occurs, there is a change in the boundary—a boundary adaptation. The boundary adaptations are described as extrusion, expansion, and expression.
