  | Book Details Title: Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time |
Book DescriptionReview “Striking…This realistic and hopeful manual shows how accomplished individuals can tackle problems whose victims often lack resources to take action.”―Kirkus Reviews, starred review“Stimulating…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.”―Publishers Weekly“I feel so strongly about this book and its message that I want everyone who aspires to make a difference to read it. It is the quintessential guide for answering the question we all eventually ask: Have I accomplished my purpose in life? As a graduate of West Point and an Airborne Ranger infantry officer I learned to ask, ‘If not me, who?’ Here are the personal tools for getting it done, showing us how small pebbles can make big waves.”―Robert A. McDonald, 8th US Secretary of Veterans Affairs; retired chairman, president & CEO of Procter & Gamble“Kanter’s book lays out the next big step in innovation: the bold leadership to imagine new solutions to big problems of communities and the world. Her brilliant new book is a compelling read, full of fascinating stories and breakthrough ideas.”―Indra Nooyi, former chairman and CEO of Pepsico“In this season of public appetite for big solutions to big problems, Kanter’s Think Outside the Building is both a clarion call and a map for new leaders to step up.”―Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts“Rosabeth Moss Kanter has done it again! This is the best book on leadership written in this century. It may change the world–at the least make it better.”―Congresswoman Donna Shalala, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services“Think Outside the Building is an excellent and inspiring guide for anybody who is trying to make change in the world. Drawing on the stories of dozens of effective efforts, Rosabeth Moss Kanter has created a guidebook that, with wisdom and optimism, extracts the essential techniques for success–especially for new initiatives with a mission to improve society.”―Nicholas Lemann, Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism and Dean Emeritus of Columbia University School of Journalism“Drawing on fifty detailed case studies and hundreds of interviews, Rosabeth Moss Kanter distills her experiences with Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative in this informative and fascinating volume. Both an ‘inspiration and a guide to action,’ this book challenges the reader with narratives describing extraordinary new approaches to old institutional and societal problems; Kanter has penned essential reading for twenty-first century leaders.”―Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University Read more About the Author Rosabeth Moss Kanter is an influential and well-known professor at Harvard Business School (holding the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship), specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. She is also chair and director of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative, a Harvard-wide innovation she co-founded in 2008, to build a growing international model that helps successful leaders at the top of their fields apply their skills to national and global challenges and build a new leadership force for the world. Read more Customers Review: 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.
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6 reviews