Think Outside the Building

October 7, 2019
As this stimulating treatise reveals, Kanter (Move: Putting America’s Infrastructure Back in the Lead), a Harvard Business School professor and cofounder of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative, believes exciting new ideas can result when leaders get out of their own institutional headspace and venture into new fields. Kanter focuses on successful businesspeople near the end of their primary careers, but not yet ready to retire and play golf; in her view, they have the needed skills and connections to help drive positive social, political, and environmental change. Through accounts of those who have done so, such as John Dubinsky, a former banking executive now dedicated to easing the construction business’s racial disparities, she walks readers through such subjects as reforming institutions; forging relationships, alliances, and coalitions; avoiding the “seven perverse traps of career success” (such as “insulation from disagreement”); and developing a “new definition of what it means to have a successful career and a successful life.” Buoyed by strong writing and an encouraging tone, Kanter’s thorough and thought-provoking guide will be a boon for veteran leaders who want to put their well-tested skills to new—and socially constructive—use.

October 15, 2019
How experienced leaders in business and other professions can act on their "youthful idealism" and make a difference in addressing complex societal problems. Harvard Business School professor Kanter (Move: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead, 2015, etc.) directs Harvard's Advanced Leadership Institute, which, since 2008, has helped some 500 retired CEOs and others gain the "outside-the-building, silo-busting" skills needed to take on "messy, complex systems problems" ranging from income inequality to human trafficking. In this striking book, the author distills the lessons learned in the program, in which successful men and women, eager to do good measured in lives improved rather than income earned, explore societal issues of interest, take classes on relevant topics outside their own area of expertise, and use their "capabilities, connections, and cash" (the latter not necessarily their own) to create cross-sector coalitions in pursuit of social change. Drawing on 50 case studies and hundreds of interviews, Kanter tells riveting stories of "bold, imaginative" leadership: A Trader Joe's CEO fights hunger, an Anheuser-Busch CEO confronts educational disparities in St. Louis, a European banker creates partnerships to finance improved ocean health, and a Hong Kong investment banker helps women work in Southeast Asia. In each case, the societal issue is rife with ambiguity and conflict, with no single organization in charge, and the challenge is to find fresh, convention-defying approaches engaging many stakeholders. The author stresses the care with which participants must approach an issue, how they develop the ability to conduct "multiple efforts on multiple fronts," and the challenges of working "across disciplines and institutional silos." She is sometimes repetitious, but mainly to emphasize the powerful potential of her approach. Time alone will reveal the outcomes of these projects, she writes, but they hold much promise and could well serve as models for others. This realistic and hopeful manual shows how accomplished individuals can tackle problems whose victims often lack resources to take action.

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January 1, 2020

Kanter's (Harvard Business Sch.) latest book deals with what she calls advanced leadership, involving experienced business leaders addressing intractable systemic problems--social, environmental, or institutional--by forming coalitions across organizational boundaries and providing innovative solutions. As Kanter notes, this is a complex task that involves attempting to make long-term systemic changes. The author is quite clear that advanced leadership is demanding, and requires great skill and persistence. This guidebook combines concrete advice with real-life examples. A strength of the book is the refusal to oversimplify real-world problems. For example, Kanter advises, anyone launching a pilot project should start small and only do what's necessary to get the project under way. While this is sensible advice, it is not always easy to stick to manage goals. VERDICT A useful book for those aspiring to lead organizations, especially managers wishing to enact social change.--Shmuel Ben-Gad, Gelman Lib., George Washington Univ., Washington, DC

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