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 of the 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.

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.

A great idea and a great title. The actual information did not match my expectations. I was looking for more outside the building thinking to solve problems instead I got same old same old.