Thought leadership
Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School and specialist on strategy, innovation, and leadership for change She is a consultant to several blue chip companies and a founder of the Boston based management consulting firm Goodmeasure Inc. She is the author of 17 books and numerous papers. Public sector leaders often remark about the pace of change, the volume of the reform agenda and the minimal strategic role they are asked to play in the shaping of policy reforms. Prof Moss Kanter’s work most notably When Giants Learn to Dance : mastering the challenges of strategy, management and careers in the 1990s. (1990 Routledge) and The Change Masters: corporate entrepreneurs at work ( 1994: Routledge) makes for compelling reading on the business case for strategy making, the importance of innovation to corporate success and of that of leadership of change. Prof Moss Kanter has argued that senior leaders will need to spend more of their time creating the culture to “support innovation, knowledge exchange and collaboration”. She goes on to suggest that in view of these specific roles some will need to take on new titles such as “ ideas scout, change agents, best practice mentors, knowledge managers, network champions and alliance ambassadors. Some companies in the private sectors already have Chief Learning or Talent Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Technology Officer at board levels. A few years ago I met a very senior leader at national level from one of the Scandinavian countries. I was curious about his job title on his business card so I asked him what does a Global Knowledge Worker actually do. “Oh I visit innovative and successful companies and organisations and bring back ideas on best practices”, he said. But why him for as a very senior leader, surely there are more pressing things to do at base. “What is more pressing than the leadership of best quality care and service that we can provide?” The point about senior leaders championing change, innovation and service improvement has never been made more strongly since. The role of the leader in helping to create and foster a climate of change is vital. Very often a change is introduced, a new system of working, reporting, adoption of a new tool, framework or arrangement and this becomes the starting point. Moss Kanter believes that it is essential that the pre-requisites for successful change are in place before such changes or innovations are introduced. For instance she observes that actual experience of change adoption which results in some people as having skills and knowledge, history of joint planning and team engagement together with pre-existing relationships of cooperation and trust, both within and across teams are all key cultural attributes. She recommends that if such infrastructures are not in place they ought to be created first. Even when they exist “they may need to become part of the story that is told about the change, because foundations not only make change possible, they also provide security and stability; grounding in the midst of it” page 283. The role of leaders and leadership is about empowering their people to innovate; to reach further and faster to gain and spread knowledge. They have a key role at connecting their people and their organisations nationally and globally and they make effective use of their relationships with their business units, supply chain, customers and staff and they are effective at seeking and using collaborative approaches. Not only are ideas and influence top down driven but bottom up and horizontal contributions are also exploited. Change and innovation is made part of everyone’s job, and this whole system connectivity is at the forefront of shaping a “ a culture of unity that derives strength from diversity. It is the role of leaders and leadership to ensure that appropriate and common tools and measurement are used to “ put every one on the same page”. Many organisations commit to such noble goals some succeed but many falter. The usual obstacles intervene including : • some units performing just well enough to meet agreed plans but with competitors changing the game with better ideas; • pressure of work; • lack of cooperation within teams and business units; • lack of support by local managers for global teams; • not enough engagement and ownership resulting in lack of imagination of benefits by networks and alliances • few incentives or rewards . • communication overload on small matters but under communication on strategic priorities. Given the importance of the existence of the cultural factors that are necessary for initiating change as well as the kind of obstacles that tend to intervene it is not surprising that so many change initiatives run into trouble, a phenomenon that Prof Moss Kanter refers to as the miserable middle of change. Leaders will need to assume greater roles as champions of change and as change agents and will need to “mobilize and motivate talent in pursuit of collective ends.