Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Small Innovation at a Time

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. (Jan.)