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Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time
One of the leading business thinkers in the world offers a bold, new theory of advanced leadership for tackling the world's complex, messy, and recalcitrant social and environmental problems.
Over a decade ago, renowned innovation expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter co-founded and then directed Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative. Her breakthrough work with hundreds of successful professionals and executives, as well as aspiring young entrepreneurs, identifies the leadership paradigm of the future: the ability to "think outside the building" to overcome establishment paralysis and produce significant innovation for a better world.
Kanter provides extraordinary accounts of the successes and near-stumbles of purpose-driven men and women from diverse backgrounds united in their conviction that positive change is possible.
A former Trader Joe's executive, for example, navigated across business, government, and community sectors to deal with poor nutrition in inner cities while reducing food waste. A concerned European banker used the power of persuasion, not position, to find novel financing for improving the health of the oceans. A Washington couple enticed global partners to join an Uber-like platform to match skilled refugees with talent-hungry companies. A visionary journalist-turned-entrepreneur closed social divides by giving fifty million social media users access to free local education and culture.
When traditional approaches are inadequate or resisted, advanced leadership skills are essential. In this book, Kanter shows how people everywhere can unleash their creativity and entrepreneurial adroitness to mobilize partners across challenging cultural, social, and political situations and innovate for a brighter future.
Over a decade ago, renowned innovation expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter co-founded and then directed Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative. Her breakthrough work with hundreds of successful professionals and executives, as well as aspiring young entrepreneurs, identifies the leadership paradigm of the future: the ability to "think outside the building" to overcome establishment paralysis and produce significant innovation for a better world.
Kanter provides extraordinary accounts of the successes and near-stumbles of purpose-driven men and women from diverse backgrounds united in their conviction that positive change is possible.
A former Trader Joe's executive, for example, navigated across business, government, and community sectors to deal with poor nutrition in inner cities while reducing food waste. A concerned European banker used the power of persuasion, not position, to find novel financing for improving the health of the oceans. A Washington couple enticed global partners to join an Uber-like platform to match skilled refugees with talent-hungry companies. A visionary journalist-turned-entrepreneur closed social divides by giving fifty million social media users access to free local education and culture.
When traditional approaches are inadequate or resisted, advanced leadership skills are essential. In this book, Kanter shows how people everywhere can unleash their creativity and entrepreneurial adroitness to mobilize partners across challenging cultural, social, and political situations and innovate for a brighter future.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published January 28, 2020
45 people are currently reading
469 people want to read
About the author
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
66 books60 followersRosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, where she specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. She is also Chair and Director of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative, an innovation that helps successful leaders at the top of their professions apply their skills to national and global challenges in their next life stage. A collaboration across all of Harvard, the Advanced Leadership Initiative aims to build a new leadership force for the world.
Her latest book, MOVE: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead, is a sweeping look across industries and technologies shaping the future of mobility and the leadership required for transformation. Her strategic and practical insights guide leaders of large and small organizations worldwide, through her teaching, writing, and direct consultation to major corporations and governments. The former chief Editor of Harvard Business Review, Professor Kanter has been repeatedly named to lists of the “50 most powerful women in the world” (Times of London), and the “50 most influential business thinkers in the world” (Thinkers 50). She has received 24 honorary doctoral degrees, as well as numerous leadership awards, lifetime achievement awards, and prizes. These include the Academy of Management’s Distinguished Career Award for scholarly contributions to management knowledge; the World Teleport Association's “Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year” award; the International Leadership Award from the Association of Leadership Professionals; and the Warren Bennis Award for Leadership Excellence.
She is the author or coauthor of 19 books. Her book The Change Masters was named one of the most influential business books of the 20th century (Financial Times). SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good, a manifesto for leadership of sustainable enterprises, was named one of the ten best business books of 2009 by Amazon.com. A related article, "How Great Companies Think Differently," received Harvard Business Review's 2011 McKinsey Award for the year's two best articles. Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End (a New York Times business bestseller and #1 Business Week bestseller), describes the culture of high-performance organizations compared with those in decline and shows how to lead turnarounds, whether in businesses, schools, sports teams, or countries. Men & Women of the Corporation, winner of the C. Wright Mills award for the best book on social issues and called a classic, offers insight into the individual and organizational factors that promote success or perpetuate disadvantage; a spin-off video, A Tale of ‘O’: On Being Different, is a widely-used tool for diversity training. A related book, Work & Family in the United States, set a policy agenda; later, a coalition of university centers created in her honor the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for the best research on work/family issues. Another award-winning book, When Giants Learn to Dance, showed how to master the new terms of competition at the dawn of the global information age. World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy identified the rise of new business networks and dilemmas of globalization, a theme she continues to pursue in her new book MOVE and the Harvard Business School U.S. Competitiveness Project.
Through her consulting arm, Goodmeasure Inc., she advises numerous CEOs and has partnered with IBM on applying her leadership tools from business to other sectors as a Senior Advisor for IBM’s Global Citizenship portfolio. She has served on many business and non-profit boards, such as City Year, the urban “Peace Corps” addressing the school dropout crisis through national service, and on a variety of national or regional commissions including the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors. She speaks widely, often sharing the platform with Presidents, Pr
Her latest book, MOVE: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead, is a sweeping look across industries and technologies shaping the future of mobility and the leadership required for transformation. Her strategic and practical insights guide leaders of large and small organizations worldwide, through her teaching, writing, and direct consultation to major corporations and governments. The former chief Editor of Harvard Business Review, Professor Kanter has been repeatedly named to lists of the “50 most powerful women in the world” (Times of London), and the “50 most influential business thinkers in the world” (Thinkers 50). She has received 24 honorary doctoral degrees, as well as numerous leadership awards, lifetime achievement awards, and prizes. These include the Academy of Management’s Distinguished Career Award for scholarly contributions to management knowledge; the World Teleport Association's “Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year” award; the International Leadership Award from the Association of Leadership Professionals; and the Warren Bennis Award for Leadership Excellence.
She is the author or coauthor of 19 books. Her book The Change Masters was named one of the most influential business books of the 20th century (Financial Times). SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good, a manifesto for leadership of sustainable enterprises, was named one of the ten best business books of 2009 by Amazon.com. A related article, "How Great Companies Think Differently," received Harvard Business Review's 2011 McKinsey Award for the year's two best articles. Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End (a New York Times business bestseller and #1 Business Week bestseller), describes the culture of high-performance organizations compared with those in decline and shows how to lead turnarounds, whether in businesses, schools, sports teams, or countries. Men & Women of the Corporation, winner of the C. Wright Mills award for the best book on social issues and called a classic, offers insight into the individual and organizational factors that promote success or perpetuate disadvantage; a spin-off video, A Tale of ‘O’: On Being Different, is a widely-used tool for diversity training. A related book, Work & Family in the United States, set a policy agenda; later, a coalition of university centers created in her honor the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for the best research on work/family issues. Another award-winning book, When Giants Learn to Dance, showed how to master the new terms of competition at the dawn of the global information age. World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy identified the rise of new business networks and dilemmas of globalization, a theme she continues to pursue in her new book MOVE and the Harvard Business School U.S. Competitiveness Project.
Through her consulting arm, Goodmeasure Inc., she advises numerous CEOs and has partnered with IBM on applying her leadership tools from business to other sectors as a Senior Advisor for IBM’s Global Citizenship portfolio. She has served on many business and non-profit boards, such as City Year, the urban “Peace Corps” addressing the school dropout crisis through national service, and on a variety of national or regional commissions including the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors. She speaks widely, often sharing the platform with Presidents, Pr
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 2, 2020
Expansive
Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time, while a mouthful for a book title, it does combine terms that set the focus for what is covered in the book.
Firstly, to Think Outside the Building sets the framework and scale of the topic under discussion. This does not mean a focus on external customers but rather on issues that are greater than any single business could or would address – namely the environment and society for the good of the public. This is not a book with advice, techniques and anecdotes on what works in creating highly successful commercial organisations for shareholder value. This is about creating highly successful ventures that have a dramatic impact on our environment and society, such as cleaning the oceans or climate change or improving inner-city education or healthcare availability to all. The context is that these are World issues and the daunting task is to implement a Change process with all the various dynamics and influences competing for why things are the way they are.
That next major aspect from the title is that this is targeted at Advanced Leaders, which implies that it is targeted at leaders who have already proven themselves. In other words, if your career as a leader is just starting or you are still building your company with a focus on achieving certain commercial goals, then this is not aimed at making you better at that role. Advanced leaders almost require a reset or a repositioning because often it means they have to move from a structured environment and a position of authority to uncertainty and persuasion, to build coalitions and to think open-mindedly across sectors.
To read business books or personal development books feeds an inherent desire to learn new techniques, to be inspired, to undertake the challenge ahead and to be reassured of its validation with stories of success. Rosabeth Moss Canter is a renowned, highly respected and experienced voice in this space and her personal interaction and her Centre’s interactions with leaders and advanced leaders provides a wealth of anecdotes and stories that underpin all the points she makes. While that is important in a book of this nature, I felt it just ran from one story to another and lacked periods of summary and reflection. In many cases, I could have jumped ahead and not really missed anything important. This is a book addressing a niche area so it probably won’t have the wider business appeal but I’m sure that leaders that find themselves in the situation where advanced leadership is their next step this would provide some interesting thoughtful reading.
I would recommend this book as an interesting read and I’d like to thank Perseus Books, PublicAffairs and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy in return for an honest review.
Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time, while a mouthful for a book title, it does combine terms that set the focus for what is covered in the book.
Firstly, to Think Outside the Building sets the framework and scale of the topic under discussion. This does not mean a focus on external customers but rather on issues that are greater than any single business could or would address – namely the environment and society for the good of the public. This is not a book with advice, techniques and anecdotes on what works in creating highly successful commercial organisations for shareholder value. This is about creating highly successful ventures that have a dramatic impact on our environment and society, such as cleaning the oceans or climate change or improving inner-city education or healthcare availability to all. The context is that these are World issues and the daunting task is to implement a Change process with all the various dynamics and influences competing for why things are the way they are.
That next major aspect from the title is that this is targeted at Advanced Leaders, which implies that it is targeted at leaders who have already proven themselves. In other words, if your career as a leader is just starting or you are still building your company with a focus on achieving certain commercial goals, then this is not aimed at making you better at that role. Advanced leaders almost require a reset or a repositioning because often it means they have to move from a structured environment and a position of authority to uncertainty and persuasion, to build coalitions and to think open-mindedly across sectors.
“Readiness to change involves the willingness to take risks. As I’ve indicated, the very people most interested and most qualified to take on institutional change challenges, because they possess the three critical Cs of capabilities, connections, and cash, are also often the most constrained by their positions and handicapped by their successes. They need a fourth C—courage.”The strategy of One Smart Innovation at a Time is also crucial in that the challenge is already daunting working across multiple stakeholders and sectors without trying to achieve massive leaps forward to eradicate gun violence or a global refugee crisis. Look for the new ways of approaching the problem.
To read business books or personal development books feeds an inherent desire to learn new techniques, to be inspired, to undertake the challenge ahead and to be reassured of its validation with stories of success. Rosabeth Moss Canter is a renowned, highly respected and experienced voice in this space and her personal interaction and her Centre’s interactions with leaders and advanced leaders provides a wealth of anecdotes and stories that underpin all the points she makes. While that is important in a book of this nature, I felt it just ran from one story to another and lacked periods of summary and reflection. In many cases, I could have jumped ahead and not really missed anything important. This is a book addressing a niche area so it probably won’t have the wider business appeal but I’m sure that leaders that find themselves in the situation where advanced leadership is their next step this would provide some interesting thoughtful reading.
I would recommend this book as an interesting read and I’d like to thank Perseus Books, PublicAffairs and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy in return for an honest review.
January 10, 2020
I have a love-hate relationship with books like this. Love: They make me think. Hate: They make me think. But no matter which way it goes, nobody does "think" books better than this author, whom I have admired ever since I read A Tale of O: On Being Different in an Organization way back in 1980 (and about five years later, Change Masters).
Most of us in the business world (or mostly retired from it, like me) have long since taken the "think outside the box" mantra to heart; but now, the author maintains, the world has outgrown that box and it's time to expand our thinking once again. People have come to view institutions, such as health care or religion, as buildings; when we think of health care, we see hospitals; think religion, see churches or synagogues. The people inside these buildings - in particular, those who run them - for the most part have become accustomed to, and comfortable with, the way things are and resist meaningful change (i.e., that which can make a real difference in and to the world).
Illustrated by a ton of examples, mostly from participants in Harvard University's Advanced Leadership Initiative (which the author co-founded and directs), this book "reflects a search for new possibilities for positive change." This means going beyond conventional wisdom, and certainly making an end run (or perhaps a bottom-up) around institutional top-down toxicity. Especially amid the I'm okay but you're not, circle the wagons times in which we live, that seems to me to be a sound approach. Many of us are unhappy with the world as it is, yet still believe it can be made better; the trick, if you will, is knowing how to make that happen.
To be sure, it's not easy; it's not enough to have a well-thought-out idea. Just getting started requires three "Cs" - capabilities, connections and cash - either well in hand or knowing how and where to obtain them. Detailed here are the processes, from concept to fruition, of several such ventures: what worked, what didn't, and what the rest of us can learn from these experiences.
Overall, this is an important book that isn't just for successful business men and women and those with plenty of money to spare. Rather, it's for anyone who sees a problem that needs addressed and envisions possible solutions that could make the world (or their little part of it) better. Highly recommended, and many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-publication copy.
Oh yes, I'm still thinking.
Most of us in the business world (or mostly retired from it, like me) have long since taken the "think outside the box" mantra to heart; but now, the author maintains, the world has outgrown that box and it's time to expand our thinking once again. People have come to view institutions, such as health care or religion, as buildings; when we think of health care, we see hospitals; think religion, see churches or synagogues. The people inside these buildings - in particular, those who run them - for the most part have become accustomed to, and comfortable with, the way things are and resist meaningful change (i.e., that which can make a real difference in and to the world).
Illustrated by a ton of examples, mostly from participants in Harvard University's Advanced Leadership Initiative (which the author co-founded and directs), this book "reflects a search for new possibilities for positive change." This means going beyond conventional wisdom, and certainly making an end run (or perhaps a bottom-up) around institutional top-down toxicity. Especially amid the I'm okay but you're not, circle the wagons times in which we live, that seems to me to be a sound approach. Many of us are unhappy with the world as it is, yet still believe it can be made better; the trick, if you will, is knowing how to make that happen.
To be sure, it's not easy; it's not enough to have a well-thought-out idea. Just getting started requires three "Cs" - capabilities, connections and cash - either well in hand or knowing how and where to obtain them. Detailed here are the processes, from concept to fruition, of several such ventures: what worked, what didn't, and what the rest of us can learn from these experiences.
Overall, this is an important book that isn't just for successful business men and women and those with plenty of money to spare. Rather, it's for anyone who sees a problem that needs addressed and envisions possible solutions that could make the world (or their little part of it) better. Highly recommended, and many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-publication copy.
Oh yes, I'm still thinking.
October 23, 2020
There are many useful and interesting examples in this book, and sometimes the author successfully connects them to practices or methods executable by the reader, but that happens far too rarely. Without the connective tissue to tie these stories of the author's powerful friends finding great success by not following the rules you didn't know existed, the reader is left wondering why this matters to them, and struggling to determine how to put any of this anecdotal information to use.
I feel for all the employees who will be assigned this book by their managers, who didn't actually read it themselves, because it's such a miserable read.
I feel for all the employees who will be assigned this book by their managers, who didn't actually read it themselves, because it's such a miserable read.
Read
January 22, 2024In a world where despair has become a sanctuary from which to resign into, Rosabeth's work in 'Think Outside the Building' gives the much needed perspective on how to relate and respond to the challenges of our times.It goes the extra mile, it challenges ordinary people to take charge of the present and shape the future, without having to vent endlessly against or rely on establishments.Well written with case studies that deal with our everyday experiences.At the end the reader may want to ask him/herself, except for whining about the horrors of our times; what am I doing about that?
May 30, 2021
This was a challenging read and it took awhile for the message to become clear. Excellent leadership information but challenging to translate to my circumstances.
I listened to podcasts and watched videos of the author, and pulling it all together made a greater impact.
I listened to podcasts and watched videos of the author, and pulling it all together made a greater impact.
March 1, 2020
Fresh book about some of the world’s great social and commercial entrepreneurs.
April 15, 2021
This is a long slog. Too many examples, stories, and details mean this book is an investment, and one I found not personally worth the time.
April 18, 2020
This book is a seminar in what Rosabeth Moss Kanter calls “advanced leadership,” taught through all sorts of useful models for structuring your planning, understanding, taking action, and messaging. It also conveys these ideas through several specific case studies of successful change-making projects in cities and communities throughout the United States. I enjoyed the practical approach, even though I thought she could have been a little briefer in depicting each project.
It was alright on Audible, but I’m going to order a hard copy so I can tab the best models and examples to use as a reference.
It was alright on Audible, but I’m going to order a hard copy so I can tab the best models and examples to use as a reference.
July 29, 2020
Lots of stories of various people who succeeded in helping the world in big ways, but very little that would help you emulate them
June 1, 2021
This is a perfect 'how to boil the ocean' playbook for anyone looking for inspiration
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews