Think Outside the Building: Keys to Successful Innovation for Positive Social Impact in Education and Beyond

"Outside the Building” thinking is the leadership skill of the future. Change-makers and entrepreneurs know that innovation rarely comes from inside the establishment. Incumbents tend to defend past decisions, don’t readily embrace change, and get stuck in the past, the status quo, or both. Innovators lead by creating new models for solutions that work across sectors and silos. The stories of these men and women show how they've reinvented the system through innovations in education, climate change, or technology. They level social divides, and forge path-breaking models propelled by their bold dreams conveyed in compelling narratives; the hustle to mobilize allies for effective cross-sector collaborations; and the resilience to overcome inevitable resistance to change. Innovators persist or pivot when they encounter “Kanter’s Law” (that everything can look like a failure in the middle), and they build a new ecosystem that can and does change the world.

Speaker: Rosabeth Moss Kanter