Report
“Leadership for Large-Scale Change: Distinctive Challenges, Emerging Perspectives”
Download each section of the report to immerse yourself in what we’ve been learning through our work with leaders of large-scale change. The conversation begins here, but should not end here. Feel free to jump into any topic that catches your eye, or consume the report in sequential order, then tell us what you think.
THE CORE IDEAS
Introduction & Executive Summary
Leadership for large-scale change poses distinctive challenges, requiring adaptations in each context. Get an overview of the challenges and how people are learning to meet them more effectively. Also included is a glossary of special terms we use.
THREE STORIES TO GROUND THE DISCUSSION
Illustrative Cases
Different approaches to large-scale societal change come to life through real-world stories. Here we highlight three examples—the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Community Empowerment Lab, and the Canadian forest industry—that we draw on often throughout the report.
1. LEADERSHIP FOUNDATIONS
Nurture Your Personal Leadership Skills
Effective leadership requires self-awareness, capacity for personal engagement, and domain knowledge. Reflect on how to step up to your own moral vision and call to serve, and consider skills, approaches, and capacities for leading large-scale initiatives.
Chapter 1: An Invitation to Reflect on Personal Leadership as a Foundation for Your Work
2. THE CHANGE DYNAMIC
Mobilize Broadly
Large-scale change efforts need to engage diverse actors, but inertia and resistance can be daunting. You can shift the dynamics in your favor.
Change happens when: {Motivation x Vision x Way Forward} > {Cost}
3. NEAR-TERM ACTION PLANS
Set a Right-Sized Agenda
There are always more things to do at any moment than there is capacity to do them. When your ambitions are large, the tradeoffs become more acute. We offer models for choosing what to focus on, and how to balance short- and long-term goals.
4. LONG-TERM ENDURANCE
Lead Smarter, Not Harder
Building large-scale collaboration consumes resources and leadership energy. Prevent burnout through “lean collaboration.” Choose when and how to embark on more intensive collaborations by gauging a system’s readiness.
Chapter 4: Approaches to Cross-Organization Communication, Coordination and Collaboration
5. SYSTEMS CHANGE RESEARCH
Shift the System
Complex systems have been studied extensively for decades. Drawing on a rich trove, we highlight themes especially important for leaders of large-scale change, including emergent responses, multiple levels, power dynamics, long-term effort, and tensions.
Chapter 5: Highlights from the Literature on Changing Social Systems
6. COLLABORATIVE LEARNING INVITATION
Boost Your Effectiveness
Previous chapters are meant to spark experiments, dialogue, and discovery. Here we offer a three-part model for leaders to participate in ongoing, interactive sessions to discuss challenges and responses in large-scale change work. We hope you will join us.
Chapter 6: Enhancing Leadership Effectiveness in Large-Scale Change Initiatives