Transcript: I certainly believe leaders can be made. I think some people who are extraordinary are born leaders and they probably showed it from an early age at one end of the continuum. And I think at the other end, there may be people who could never be a leader no matter what they did. But I think everybody has in them the potential to lead. And the question is whether the circumstances evoke that . . . whether they’re given the opportunity; whether they’re given the chances to practice; mentors who advise them, who guide them, who tell them not to make stupid mistakes; whether they’re given the education so that they have the intellectual ability. Because remember leaders are not just emotionally powerful because people want to follow them. They’re also often intellectually powerful. That is, they have an important idea that thinks beyond the current situation. They can set an agenda for change. And so you need a certain intellectual ability. Education helps. What I see is that in places – whether it’s countries, communities, or companies – that are . . . that have a positive culture . . . Let me start that again. What I see in communities, countries and companies that have a positive culture – that are on a winning streak that build confidence – is that they also produce more leaders because they empower more people to take initiative on actions they see. But in organizations or communities that are closed, bureaucratic, hierarchical, topped down, one person – or a small pool – controls everything, therefore shutting everybody else out of the opportunity to lead, and to develop further their skills and leadership.

I think Nelson Mandela in South Africa had to be a natural leader. There are very few people in the world who could have done what he did. I mean 27 years in prison, and coming out and repairing a troubled nation and forgiving his enemies. He’s off the charts when it comes to leadership. I think you probably have to be born Mandela. On the other hand, I think all of us can find our inner Mandela. That is reach more deeply into ourselves to pull out the best parts of ourselves that help us lead. And whether we’re encouraged to do that or not has a great deal to do with the culture that surrounds us and the support we get from our colleagues. So yes. With encouragement, a positive culture, and support from colleagues, more people can become leaders.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: Women in business, as well as women in leadership positions in any sector, have been something that I’ve been concerned about my entire professional life. I have to say we’re selfish because I got my PhD at a time when there were very few people like me. I was often the first of my kind sitting in a room with people of another kind. That’s sometimes true, by the way, when I go as an American to the Middle East now where I’m very different in many respects. So I was very concerned about getting more women. I thought it was in my self-interest to have my women colleagues. First of all then the whole image of women would have been elevated. But also I wouldn’t have had to sit there and answer silly questions about, “What’s the women’s point of view?” I wanted more at the table. I also do care about opportunity, and I care about not breaking . . . not being confined. I care about . . . I care about opportunity, and I care about not being trapped behind stereotypes. So now we’ve had the breakthroughs. There are certainly more women in leadership positions and lots and lots of women in the pipeline. What I’m concerned about now is that we haven’t changed institutions enough to make it possible for women who want to devote themselves to their children during formative years to do that, or for men for that matter who say, “No, I’d like to devote my time to my children” to do that without feeling they sacrifice their careers. I think we still don’t have enough women in leadership to make it totally normal, or we wouldn’t ask today’s silly woman question, which is, “Was Carly Fiorina fired because she was a woman?” And the answer is, “No, she wasn’t.” But all the attention she got afterwards was because we had so few women CEOs we didn’t take it for granted. But I think we have to get more women in leadership. In order to do that, we need to help those talented women in the pipeline feel that they can continue to advance without sacrificing important things to them in life. They don’t have to sacrifice their career, nor do they have to sacrifice their family. I think that more men ought to take on some of those family responsibilities. That was important to me. I always felt there was a reason for two parents. And my husband did a great deal. And so we could lead more balanced lives. I think that, to me, is the frontier. It’s what we do about work and family . . . work-life balance. And if we craft that, we will see all those talented women taking on responsibilities. And it will look completely normal to have women do important leadership tasks.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: My creative process involves that old saying, “It’s 90% perspiration and only 10% inspiration.” I struggle at every step of the way. It gets easy sometimes when I know what I want to say and what I want to discover. But it’s always a struggle. So I’m very disciplined about it. I . . . I have all kinds of mantras and slogans and sayings. I sometimes place them up on the wall around my various computers. They’ll say, “Just Do It!” Or the famous quote . . . I call it “Kanter’s Law.” I don’t know if other people do. But Kanter’s Law: “Everything can look like a failure in the middle.” And so I’ll say to myself, “It’s just the middle.” And I’ll paste up that quote. Because if you chip away bit by bit, eventually you have created the Mona Lisa. I mean wasn’t it Michelangelo? Well not the Mona Lisa. Sorry. But if you chip away bit by bit, you do create the great sculpture. I think it was once Michelangelo who once said, “How do you make this beautiful sculpture? Well you start with a block of stone, and then you chip away everything that isn’t David.” So in a sense it’s that chipping away bit by bit by bit. Having a big goal, knowing that it’s gotta be a big idea, that it’s gotta be something that is worth reading. And that’s the other thing. The creative process for me doesn’t work as well without an image of an audience in mind. Who am I talking to? Who am I doing this for? How is it going to affect or influence them? So it’s that match between the internal – what’s in me – but knowing who might receive it makes my ideas a lot better than if I were simply writing for an audience of . . . of two or writing only for myself. And I care about that. I am an academic and a social scientist, and I have published in academic journals and I could continue to do it; but I’m looking for bigger things now. I’m looking for impact on the world for reaching audiences of the powerful who can do something with my ideas or reaching audiences of the potential future leaders and social entrepreneurs who also can do something with my idea, but they start as anonymous, ordinary people. And so if I have those in mind and think about the impact, and just discipline myself – as difficult as it is to “just do it” – then the creative process can be mastered. But it’s not like it’s easy.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: I’m impressed by the Nobel laureate from Africa whose projects was planting trees and getting other women in the village to plant trees. That’s very powerful. It starts with a small act, but it starts with finding what strength you have and what you can do. So my highest values have to do with unlocking the potential in people. I know that sounds a little “new age-y”, but it’s still a good thing to do! And it could be, if we’re lucky, the 21st century mode. We’ve been through several decades of cynicism where hard numbers drove out other kinds of thinking . . . where we had a little bit of greed in the United States because, well, people could. There was money to be made. And I’m hoping that we’ll enter an era of hope.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: The 21st century is being shaped by – heavily by – technology. In fact technology has always been very powerful, powerful forces in history because it sets the context. And information communications technology definitely shapes our era. They connect people. They make ideas and information more transparent and open. They can topple regimes. I fully believe that Communism ended in Eastern Europe because people became aware that they had choices and were no longer ready to settle for the local option and therefore support those regimes. So technology can have very, very powerful social impact, political impact, and set the context for everything we do.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: I finished a book in the early part of 2007 for publication in October 2007 on current and national affairs. Because I think that the most important overarching thing going on is that the United States has to again become the land of opportunity and the land . . . and the place that operates according to principles. So it’s called “America the Principled: Six Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again.” And so those six opportunities seem to me to be the most important issues. One is how do we secure our future? And security isn’t simply a matter of watchdogs at airports. It’s a matter of economic security. That’s how we keep jobs in the United States for Americans. That’s how we ensure that we have the technology to make us safe. And that requires investments in innovation. And it requires open minds. So the life sciences are so important. And yet they have been so discredited by an administration that has not cared about science, who are not doing enough to educate people in the U.S. in science and math, which are so important to our future. Most of the engineering and science degrees being given in the United States today – advanced degrees, PhDs – are going to foreign nationals or people of foreign origins. And as far as I’m concerned they’re welcome here, but I would also like to see our young people get those degrees. So that’s a . . . that’s the first challenge. I’m very concerned about the disappearing middle class and the . . . the problems of balancing work and family that women have. So pursuing happiness was something that’s written into our earliest origins – “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” An awful lot of people aren’t happy because they don’t have healthcare; because they have to take two jobs; they don’t . . . they’re worried about their children. So that’s an important issue. Clearly the war in Iraq is an important issue currently, but it’s part of a larger problem of how do we engage with the world? Is our form of engagement only saber rattling? Or are we making those grassroots investments in the economic development of other countries and the development of their leaders so that we have more allies and friends around the world? That’s a major challenge. We are not liked in many parts of the world. Actually, there’s a gap between liking Americans as a people and liking the American government. Many more people like Americans than like the American government.

We have . . . And speaking of government, we have a problem with respect for government. In fact in recent years, people have discredited government because so many government officials have done things that are “ethically challenged” to put it in a positive way; but a lot of Washington was under indictment for a while. So if we don’t restore respect for government . . . I’m sick of politicians running against government. “I’m running for this office because I believe that we shouldn’t have these offices.” It’s ridiculous. So we need respect so that good people run for office. In turn, they appoint confident people, and they care about how well government is run. It’s a . . . It’s a traditional American principle to say, “That government is best which governs least.” But frankly, it can’t govern least unless it governs better. Because it’s much more costly to have a disaster like Hurricane Katrina than it would have been to invest in the levees in New Orleans in the first place.

And finally I think we need a spirit of service. The partisan divides and the partisan ugliness in America has plagued us. We spend so much time arguing with each other while fighting wars that we can’t possibly win and probably shouldn’t have been in in the first place, then we will never heal this nation. We need things that bring us together across partisan divides, as well as divides of race, or age, or . . . or urban vs. rural. And I think community service and the generosity of American philanthropy are things that can unite us again. So those are the themes that I’ve been writing about. Those are the things that I want on the agenda for the presidential election in 2008. Those are the things in the news that bother me the most, but also inspire me to think about solutions.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: I think the turn of the 21st century will be memb . . . will be remembered as a perilous time where we had choices about whether we were going to try to make the world better, or give up and let it go into decline. I hope that by 2010, 2015, we will already see the solutions. I think it will also be remembered as the time when brain power replaced oil as our most important resource, and we invested more in the development of brain power than we did in the search for oil. And that brain power helped us find alternative fuels. I hope it will be remembered as the age when the American century – which is what the 20th century is sometimes called – will have become the world century, and America will still be an important part of it, but will be a partner with other countries that have lifted their standard of lifting, and now play a leadership part in the world.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Question: Beyond a simple title, how would you describe what you do for a living?

Transcript: What I do for a living is I try to make a difference in the world.  And I realize that’s not very specific and I should pin it down a bit.  But I am very interested in how we make the systems around us work to produce benefits for the people in them and the people that they serve.  That’s always been very important.  I work with large companies, some of the most important global giants in the world.  But I . . . I work with them about change, about transformation, about a positive impact.  I’ve always stood for empowerment of people.  And I do this through a combination of ways.  It’s the words I say and the words that I put in other people’s mouths, because I get quoted frequently.  It’s through direct advice, doing research and projects for particular organizations.  It’s through my students at Harvard Business School and occasionally at Harvard College . . . the undergraduates that I influence.  It’s through my faculty colleagues.  Now I’m working with faculty from public health and education, law, government and business on a new project where we think we can deploy leaders at later stages in their lives to solve key problems of the world – poverty, education, public health, environment.  So . . . so I get a chance to work in all those domains, but I work through helping leaders become better leaders of major institutions.

Question: What sparked your interest in strategy and innovation leadership?

Transcript:  This is what makes the world go around.  It’s strategy.  It’s defining a vision . . . a mission.  And but it’s not only implementing what you’ve already done; it’s doing something new and better.  Not for the sake of being different, but for the sake of improving upon what’s been done before in order to have a bigger impact on more people.  There are about six billion people in the world today, and a large number . . .  Actually I shouldn’t say six billion people in the world.  I’m not sure what the number is.  I recently spoke to somebody who was participating in developing the earth charter.  And he said, “Well we could then do something for six billion people in the world.”  And I said, “Yes, but there may be three billion people of the world who won’t care about the earth yet because they’re still hungry.  They still need food on the table every day and a better life for their families.”  I believe that business – particularly socially responsible business – can be a potent force for making a difference in all of those areas.  And in recent years, the businesses that I work with are companies that are trying to not only be effective and innovative themselves in the interest of shareholders and profits, but they are also trying to make a difference in all of the countries and communities in which they operate.  To do that they have to be very strategic.  They need excellent value-based leaders.  And they certainly have to know how to innovate.  I feel that the world desperately needs innovation . . . innovation.  I believe that the world desperately needs innovative solutions to problems.  It needs creative thinking.  I think that it’s exciting.  It’s open-ended.  I think the 21st century has . . . has the . . .  I think that the 20th century can be the time when we finally could become one planet lifting the fortunes of everybody, exploring other galaxies.

I was very influenced by Star Trek.  I really loved that idea that there are other worlds out there to explore.  It could also be a century of bloody conflict and tensions; but I want to help educate leaders who are going to ensure that their power, their resources, their organizations are guided to help make the world a better place.

Question: What can business leaders today learn about innovation and strategy from the past?

Transcript: There have been many efforts to write about strategy, leadership, innovation, organizational change.  This became particularly popular in the recent era – the last 30 years – that we can call the “global information age”.  In the machine age – the industrial age – it was certainly important to innovate.  And technological innovations and breakthroughs have shaped our world . . . from the automobile and the airplane, to air conditioning to all the bells and whistles of technology.  But in the global information age where people can be so interconnected, it became even more important to seek new models.  And in fact a whole new set of feisty, new entrepreneurial companies – starting with Apple computers in the 1970s – said, “We’re gonna do things differently and we’re going to democratize technology.”  Apple’s first slogan was “Bicycles for the mind.”  And I thought that was a brilliant way of talking about providing a new utility for people to communicate with.  And so we’ve known a great deal about innovation through the years.  And we’ve had successive waves of effort to research and write about innovation.  And there are a few lessons that have been enduring.  I was one of the early writers about this modern wave of innovation in 1983 in a book called “The Change Masters”.  And much of what I discovered then about the culture for innovation, what stimulates creativity, what steps an innovator has to go through in order to get acceptance for an idea . . . those are all the same.  After all, innovation is something that is only good in retrospect after it’s worked.  We all say we want more innovation, but we don’t want crazy ideas.  We want things that are proven.  But before they are proven it’s very hard work.  Not simply to have the idea – to create the invention – but to convince other people . . . to reshape the context so that there will be receptivity for the innovation.  And the lessons about change and resistance to change are enduring.  I’m sure they’ve been with us for centuries, since the Greeks, the Arabs or the Chinese inventors in early civilization.  They must have all heard, “It’s impossible.  We’ve tried it before and it hasn’t worked.”  Well innovators are up against the same thing no matter what their era.  And today in the 21st century, we continue to rediscover those same lessons about what produces change.

Question: What are the tenets of a turnaround?

Transcript: Turnarounds mean that something has not been working and has often gone downhill.  I distinguish losing streaks and winning streaks as two very different phenomenon.  When things are going down, people get depressed.  They believe they will always go down.  When companies start losing money . . . when sports teams start losing games and continue to lose . . . when non-profit organizations lose their funding . . . when countries lose wars or lose hope and start heading downhill, that’s a losing streak.  And so to turn that around toward a winning streak is not just a matter of solving the immediate problems – financial, or it’s been the wrong strategy and model, or . . . or there have been some operational problems, there have been leaks in the building, there were disasters that were unexpected – it’s also a question of people’s attitudes, feelings, expectations and morale.  And so you not only need a financial, strategic and operational turnaround, but also a psychological and emotional and cultural turnaround to rebuild confidence.  Confidence is just an expectation of success . . . that we can do it.  We can make it happen.  And when leaders lead a turnaround, they have to make people believe that they can finally make something happen after so many losses.  And that’s very, very difficult.  In a losing streak people give up.  They lose hope.  They go passive.  And so a great deal of the work of leadership is not only solving the immediate problem.  It is also lifting people’s spirits and giving them confidence in advance of victory.

Question: Are leaders born or made?

Transcript: I certainly believe leaders can be made.  I think some people who are extraordinary are born leaders and they probably showed it from an early age at one end of the continuum.  And I think at the other end, there may be people who could never be a leader no matter what they did.  But I think everybody has in them the potential to lead.  And the question is whether the circumstances evoke that . . . whether they’re given the opportunity; whether they’re given the chances to practice; mentors who advise them, who guide them, who tell them not to make stupid mistakes; whether they’re given the education so that they have the intellectual ability.  Because remember leaders are not just emotionally powerful because people want to follow them.  They’re also often intellectually powerful.  That is, they have an important idea that thinks beyond the current situation.  They can set an agenda for change.  And so you need a certain intellectual ability.  Education helps.  What I see is that in places – whether it’s countries, communities, or companies – that are . . . that have a positive culture . . .  Let me start that again.  What I see in communities, countries and companies that have a positive culture – that are on a winning streak that build confidence – is that they also produce more leaders because they empower more people to take initiative on actions they see.  But in organizations or communities that are closed, bureaucratic, hierarchical, topped down, one person – or a small pool – controls everything, therefore shutting everybody else out of the opportunity to lead, and to develop further their skills and leadership.

I think Nelson Mandela in South Africa had to be a natural leader.  There are very few people in the world who could have done what he did.  I mean 27 years in prison, and coming out and repairing a troubled nation and forgiving his enemies.  He’s off the charts when it comes to leadership.  I think you probably have to be born Mandela.  On the other hand, I think all of us can find our inner Mandela.  That is reach more deeply into ourselves to pull out the best parts of ourselves that help us lead.  And whether we’re encouraged to do that or not has a great deal to do with the culture that surrounds us and the support we get from our colleagues.  So yes.  With encouragement, a positive culture, and support from colleagues, more people can become leaders.

Question: What is the most exciting thing going on in business today?

Transcript: The most exciting thing going on in business today is the match between a company’s resources and problems in the world, which both triggers innovation that the world benefits from and that the company benefits from.  I think that’s phenomenal.  It’s not corporate social responsibility.  It’s corporate innovation, but take . . . taking on big problems.  Problems of clean water in places that don’t have it; problems of education.  And in the course of doing that, companies are developing products and services, and the world is benefiting.  That’s thrilling.  I mean I love to see companies succeed and make money.  They need to.  They can’t sustain themselves without good business models.  On the other hand, when they can get business benefits and also help people advance or improve their lives, that’s really thrilling.  And I love the amount of creativity and creative thinking that’s going on in some very big companies.  That’s also exciting to me by the way, because we’ve moved through an era where we thought big . . . big was bad.  Big companies were bureaucratic.  They were stifling.  They were dinosaurs, and only the small, feisty entrepreneurial companies could make a difference in the world.  That was in part because of the .com era, in part because of now the Googles of the world.  However, today it’s also exciting to watch big companies become feisty innovative makers of change.  I love the creativity and innovation that goes into positive and productive change.  It’s inspiring.  It’s personally fulfilling.  And it’s a model that stimulates all of us to aspire to greater things.  We do not have to accept the world as it is.  We can take the best parts and learn how to preserve them, and we can solve the remaining problems.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: Everybody should be asking themselves what are their constraints, and “How can I use just a . . . a part of that to tackle a problem that’s always bothered me that will help somebody else? And how can I take that small step? What cause should I join? What’s the next thing that needs to be solved? And how can I get some satisfaction from doing it?” Because if you don’t get the satisfaction, this isn’t ________. If you don’t get the satisfaction, you’re not going to keep on doing it. So, “What can I find that will truly give me joy, but will also at the same time just make my corner of the world slightly better?”

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: I tend to be a natural optimist. I tend to talk positively about things. So my answer has to be “it depends.” I think that if we continue current trends . . . current trends, many of them look negative. Current trends are that the income divide is widening around the world. Health problems coming from one place to another are getting scarier . . . that we might have pandemics that we’re not prepared for. I mean those are a horror show of potential problems. On the other hand I am optimistic because I see more people paying attention to that. I see more leaders in institutions. I see more optimistic and hopeful candidates that don’t want to turn their back on the world . . . that wanna solve problems. I’m seeing more young people who wanna get involved and make a difference. And I think it depends. If we encourage that kind of leadership . . . if we vote for those kinds of candidates . . . if we each say, “What could I do to recycle?”

I have a friend who started a company called “One Bag at a Time” so that we don’t have to use as many grocery bags. Well it’s true. If each one of us takes some small steps, those add up. If each one of us takes a positive agenda seriously . . . but we have to believe it’s possible. Let’s not give up.

I end “America the Principled”, my new book, by do . . . writing what I call a “pep talk for America”. Well, you know that sounds . . . kind of sounds like a cheerleader; but sometimes I think the country does need a pep talk. I hear too many people to say, “These problems are too big. We can’t possibly do something about them.” But yes we can. We have millions of people. Let’s educate some more. Let’s improve public education. Let’s get high school students working on pieces of some of these problems. There was a set of high school students in New Hampshire that worked on an alternative fuel made from used cooking oil from local restaurants. And they were doing that as a science project. Well who knows? Maybe they’ll have a breakthrough and we’ll run all of our hybrid cars on used cooking oil from New Hampshire restaurants. I think it’s possible. It’s a matter of confidence.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: I finished a book in the early part of 2007 for publication in October 2007 on current and national affairs. Because I think that the most important overarching thing going on is that the United States has to again become the land of opportunity and the land . . . and the place that operates according to principles. So it’s called “America the Principled: Six Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again.” And so those six opportunities seem to me to be the most important issues. One is how do we secure our future? And security isn’t simply a matter of watchdogs at airports. It’s a matter of economic security. That’s how we keep jobs in the United States for Americans. That’s how we ensure that we have the technology to make us safe. And that requires investments in innovation. And it requires open minds. So the life sciences are so important. And yet they have been so discredited by an administration that has not cared about science, who are not doing enough to educate people in the U.S. in science and math, which are so important to our future. Most of the engineering and science degrees being given in the United States today – advanced degrees, PhDs – are going to foreign nationals or people of foreign origins. And as far as I’m concerned they’re welcome here, but I would also like to see our young people get those degrees. So that’s a . . . that’s the first challenge. I’m very concerned about the disappearing middle class and the . . . the problems of balancing work and family that women have. So pursuing happiness was something that’s written into our earliest origins – “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” An awful lot of people aren’t happy because they don’t have healthcare; because they have to take two jobs; they don’t . . . they’re worried about their children. So that’s an important issue. Clearly the war in Iraq is an important issue currently, but it’s part of a larger problem of how do we engage with the world? Is our form of engagement only saber rattling? Or are we making those grassroots investments in the economic development of other countries and the development of their leaders so that we have more allies and friends around the world? That’s a major challenge. We are not liked in many parts of the world. Actually, there’s a gap between liking Americans as a people and liking the American government. Many more people like Americans than like the American government.

We have . . . And speaking of government, we have a problem with respect for government. In fact in recent years, people have discredited government because so many government officials have done things that are “ethically challenged” to put it in a positive way; but a lot of Washington was under indictment for a while. So if we don’t restore respect for government . . . I’m sick of politicians running against government. “I’m running for this office because I believe that we shouldn’t have these offices.” It’s ridiculous. So we need respect so that good people run for office. In turn, they appoint confident people, and they care about how well government is run. It’s a . . . It’s a traditional American principle to say, “That government is best which governs least.” But frankly, it can’t govern least unless it governs better. Because it’s much more costly to have a disaster like Hurricane Katrina than it would have been to invest in the levees in New Orleans in the first place.

And finally I think we need a spirit of service. The partisan divides and the partisan ugliness in America has plagued us. We spend so much time arguing with each other while fighting wars that we can’t possibly win and probably shouldn’t have been in in the first place, then we will never heal this nation. We need things that bring us together across partisan divides, as well as divides of race, or age, or . . . or urban vs. rural. And I think community service and the generosity of American philanthropy are things that can unite us again. So those are the themes that I’ve been writing about. Those are the things that I want on the agenda for the presidential election in 2008. Those are the things in the news that bother me the most, but also inspire me to think about solutions.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Question: What forces have shaped humanity most?

Transcript: The 21st century is being shaped by – heavily by – technology. In fact technology has always been very powerful, powerful forces in history because it sets the context. And information communications technology definitely shapes our era. They connect people. They make ideas and information more transparent and open. They can topple regimes. I fully believe that Communism ended in Eastern Europe because people became aware that they had choices and were no longer ready to settle for the local option and therefore support those regimes. So technology can have very, very powerful social impact, political impact, and set the context for everything we do.

Question: Does humankind have an overarching purpose or direction?

Transcript: Does . . . Do . . . I have to stop and think about that for a while. Do we have an . . . an overarching purpose of direction? I don’t know whether people – humanity – has an overarching purpose or direction. But I do know that we connect with one another, and that our legacies lie in what people remember us for later. I think we feel alive because we’re alive in the minds of other people. And therefore that might drive us not toward the selfish side, or the reptilian parts of our brain – fight or flight or defensive reactions – but I think that the idea that our identity comes from being known to, being cared about by other people, should drive us to attempt to make more people aware that we have something great to give to them. So part of my philo . . . personal philosophy I guess . . . So part of my personal philosophy also, I guess, is that giving helps you receive. And that’s what I believe our purpose is. I don’t know about where that stands theologically; but I believe that we are in charge of our lives on earth, and also that we have to play the hands we’re dealt. I can’t turn myself into some totally different kind of person. So I have to use what I have. And if it can resonate with other people, then my identity is strengthened and enhanced, and they will remember me afterwards wherever I go then.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Question: Do you have a personal philosophy?

Transcript: My personal philosophy . . .  Do I have a personal philosophy?  I have many personal philosophies.  I am constantly quoting things to myself.  I learned this when I was writing my book “Confidence”, and I was studying how great athletes and great sports teams achieve winning streaks.  And I learned about self-talk, that athletes engage in self-talk.  They’re always saying things to themselves.  So I have a lot of self-talk.  At the moment I’m saying to myself, “Don’t push the river.  Go with the flow.”  So I’m going back to Zen statements stemming from my formative years.  And I’m doing that because I’m working on some very difficult projects, including a project to bring a new kind of education to Harvard.  And I’m working on projects with companies that have some thorny problems to solve.  And I’m impatient.  I wanna have it done right away.  And you have to wait for people to get back to you.  You have to wait for coalitions of people to form.  Meetings keep getting rescheduled.  So I say to myself, “Go with the flow.  Don’t push the river.”  But I also know how important it is not to give up.  So I repeat to myself, “Everything can look like a failure in the middle.”  Kanter’s Law.  I think persisting is more important than almost anything else.  You have to listen to negative voices, but I say to myself, “Don’t let the voices and the negativity drag you down.”  So most of my personal philosophies have to do with action . . . with getting it done.

Question: What is your highest virtue?

Transcript:    I care about outcomes that are good for people, and for as many people as possible.  I care about empowerment.  I care about finding the . . . the strength that might . . . that might lie in each person.  I certainly care that people are fed and clothed and that the water is clean and everything else; but I think that that will happen when we do empower people . . . find the strength in them.

I’m impressed by the Nobel laureate from Africa whose projects was planting trees and getting other women in the village to plant trees.  That’s very powerful.  It starts with a small act, but it starts with finding what strength you have and what you can do.  So my highest values have to do with unlocking the potential in people.  I know that sounds a little “new age-y”, but it’s still a good thing to do!  And it could be, if we’re lucky, the 21st century mode.  We’ve been through several decades of cynicism where hard numbers drove out other kinds of thinking . . . where we had a little bit of greed in the United States because, well, people could.  There was money to be made.  And I’m hoping that we’ll enter an era of hope.

I started out my career many years ago – or my intellectual career – writing my doctoral dissertation about how many organizations build commitment.  But the organizations I chose to look at were 19th century, utopian, American communities.  So I’ve always had a slight utopian streak.  I believe that hope and optimism are good ways to think, because you can be proved wrong; but if you don’t have hope and optimism you don’t even try!

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript:  What inspires me are people who lift spirits and make a difference.  I don’t know how to put it differently.  I mean, the cofounders of the model for America’s National Service Program – AmeriCorps – the two co-founders who were then recent Harvard Law graduates in the 1980s . . . Alan Khazei and Michael Brown . . . they inspired me.  In fact I’ve been on their board for over 14 years.  They inspired me because they had a vision for powerful improvement that would get people excited, make a difference.  I loved that.  I mean that keeps me going.  And from organizations like that, I feel that I get more than I give, even though I have to give a lot.  So I’m inspired by that.  I’m inspired by small acts, small actions that have the potential to make a big difference.  I love small wins.  I think it’s great to have the big vision, and that’s inspiring.  But if you don’t translate it into everyday events, everyday accomplishments, you can’t get to the big vision.  So I’m inspired sometimes by just knocking things off the “To Do” list and say, “Boy!  It is possible to get things done!” and then go on to the next one.

I’m inspired by young people a great deal.  And it’s . . .  The many reasons I’m at university . . . I mean I could do other things.  I could consult.  I could have an executive position.  For a while I was on a college president track, but I turned down various invitations and offers because I love the process of generating ideas and teaching.  Well my young people at Harvard Business School are in their late 20s, so they’re already kind of grown up.  But I’m still having the opportunity to influence people while they’re fresh, while they have the energy.  And you know, the power of ideas and vision and inspiration and confidence, it gives you more physical energy.  And so inspiration and the energy to achieve go together.

Question:  Do you have a creative process? 

Transcript:  My creative process involves that old saying, “It’s 90% perspiration and only 10% inspiration.”  I struggle at every step of the way.  It gets easy sometimes when I know what I want to say and what I want to discover.  But it’s always a struggle.  So I’m very disciplined about it.  I . . . I have all kinds of mantras and slogans and sayings.  I sometimes place them up on the wall around my various computers.  They’ll say, “Just Do It!”  Or the famous quote . . . I call it “Kanter’s Law.”  I don’t know if other people do.  But Kanter’s Law: “Everything can look like a failure in the middle.”  And so I’ll say to myself, “It’s just the middle.”  And I’ll paste up that quote.  Because if you chip away bit by bit, eventually you have created the Mona Lisa.  I mean wasn’t it Michelangelo?  Well not the Mona Lisa.  Sorry.   But if you chip away bit by bit, you do create the great sculpture.  I think it was once Michelangelo who once said, “How do you make this beautiful sculpture?  Well you start with a block of stone, and then you chip away everything that isn’t David.”  So in a sense it’s that chipping away bit by bit by bit.  Having a big goal, knowing that it’s gotta be a big idea, that it’s gotta be something that is worth reading.  And that’s the other thing.  The creative process for me doesn’t work as well without an image of an audience in mind.  Who am I talking to?  Who am I doing this for?  How is it going to affect or influence them? So it’s that match between the internal – what’s in me – but knowing who might receive it makes my ideas a lot better than if I were simply writing for an audience of . . . of two or writing only for myself.  And I care about that.  I am an academic and a social scientist, and I have published in academic journals and I could continue to do it; but I’m looking for bigger things now.  I’m looking for impact on the world for reaching audiences of the powerful who can do something with my ideas or reaching audiences of the potential future leaders and social entrepreneurs who also can do something with my idea, but they start as anonymous, ordinary people.  And so if I have those in mind and think about the impact, and just discipline myself – as difficult as it is to “just do it” – then the creative process can be mastered.  But it’s not like it’s easy.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Question: What impact does your work have on the world?

Transcript: I would love to feel that my work has an impact in the world; but I also need to approach this question with a certain degree of humility. I mean we at Harvard sometimes think that we’re part of the greatest university in the world. But there are lots of other places now that are also doing great things. My work, if I have influenced some people – some people in leadership positions – to do things differently, that’s the important thing. I do have many, many people who read my books. They quote me. I am sometimes recognized in airports. But I also sit at meetings with world leaders where I am convinced of my utter irrelevance. So I think that I have had an impact in terms of the term “empowerment”, and the importance of empowering people. I think my work on change has guided many, many organizations not only through my books, but through a change toolkit on the World Wide Web that is being used by many companies and governments around the world. I think that the ideas have entered into the vocabulary of leadership so much so that people sometimes forget that I thought of it first. And I guess that’s what’s important because I’m gonna go on to the next idea.

Question: What is your proudest achievement?

Transcript: Oh my proudest achievement is so hard to say. My proudest achievement is generally the most recent because . . . because I had just put in so much effort and so much struggle to do it. I really work hard. None of it comes easy. So I think of my books as proud achievements. But I’m always proudest of the most recent because I think that I’ve gone further in whatever that is.

I’m certainly proud of my son – of being able to have a life sufficiently balanced – that I can have a good family life and set forth my son upon the world. I’m certainly proud of the companies I’ve changed and the ideas I’ve spawned. And I can point to particular ones of the presidential campaigns that I’ve influenced; of the world leaders with whom I’ve shared the stage at numerous events who had already been using my ideas, but then go back and have learned something that often shapes their agenda. I’m asked questions like, “Well what should be the most important priority for Columbia?” And I answer those questions. So it’s thought leadership. It’s working with the power of ideas. And it’s wonderful that in this world of giant enterprises . . . IBM has 350,000 people and enormously advanced technology, and yet one person whispering in the ear of a world leader or an IBM executive can often change the course of that company, and sometimes the course of history.

Question: What needs to change for women in business today?

Transcript: Women in business, as well as women in leadership positions in any sector, have been something that I’ve been concerned about my entire professional life. I have to say we’re selfish because I got my PhD at a time when there were very few people like me. I was often the first of my kind sitting in a room with people of another kind. That’s sometimes true, by the way, when I go as an American to the Middle East now where I’m very different in many respects. So I was very concerned about getting more women. I thought it was in my self-interest to have my women colleagues. First of all then the whole image of women would have been elevated. But also I wouldn’t have had to sit there and answer silly questions about, “What’s the women’s point of view?” I wanted more at the table. I also do care about opportunity, and I care about not breaking . . . not being confined. I care about . . . I care about opportunity, and I care about not being trapped behind stereotypes. So now we’ve had the breakthroughs. There are certainly more women in leadership positions and lots and lots of women in the pipeline. What I’m concerned about now is that we haven’t changed institutions enough to make it possible for women who want to devote themselves to their children during formative years to do that, or for men for that matter who say, “No, I’d like to devote my time to my children” to do that without feeling they sacrifice their careers. I think we still don’t have enough women in leadership to make it totally normal, or we wouldn’t ask today’s silly woman question, which is, “Was Carly Fiorina fired because she was a woman?” And the answer is, “No, she wasn’t.” But all the attention she got afterwards was because we had so few women CEOs we didn’t take it for granted. But I think we have to get more women in leadership. In order to do that, we need to help those talented women in the pipeline feel that they can continue to advance without sacrificing important things to them in life. They don’t have to sacrifice their career, nor do they have to sacrifice their family. I think that more men ought to take on some of those family responsibilities. That was important to me. I always felt there was a reason for two parents. And my husband did a great deal. And so we could lead more balanced lives. I think that, to me, is the frontier. It’s what we do about work and family . . . work-life balance. And if we craft that, we will see all those talented women taking on responsibilities. And it will look completely normal to have women do important leadership tasks.

Recorded on: 6/13/07

Transcript: Rosabeth Moss Kanter. And I am Professor . . . I have a chaired professorship at Harvard Business School.

Question: Where are you from and how has that shaped you?

Transcript: Cleveland, Ohio. I don’t think where I’m from has shaped me much at all; although I used to call it “Middle America Heights” because I grew up at a time when the suburbs were flourishing. But I was very urban-oriented. I remember spending a great deal of time in the city. I was always interested in larger problems of the world. And even though I adored my family, I couldn’t wait to get out and be part of the wider world.

Question: Who was your greatest influence as a young?

Transcript: As a young person, I can’t say that very many people influenced me at all. I seemed to chart my own course. I started writing plays when I was very little. I remember writing a play when I was in kindergarten. And I joked recently – where we had . . . for a performance in which we had to write very funny bios – that I wrote my first play at age six and have been trying to put words in other people’s mouths since.

Question: What did you think you’d be doing professionally when you were growing up?

Transcript: Well I . . . What I thought I’d be doing professionally changed dramatically through the years, although it’s also remained remarkably similar. That is I thought I would be a professional. I thought I would advise important leaders in the world. I thought I would write. But the ways in which I thought I would do it have changed. I was very interested in science when I was young. But somehow I got encouraged out of science and toward the humanities. And by the time I was in college I was interested in humanities, but American civilization. And I then discovered that there was a way to combine science and humanities through the social sciences. And those were fields I didn’t know much about. And so I got a PhD. I realized that you had to do that to be taken seriously. And I began that combination of activities. So in some ways, I’ve done the same thing my entire life. I have researched and written about important problems and important issues. I have advised the heads of major organizations. I have been an entrepreneur, served on civic and profit and national – and even international – boards. And so what I’ve done hasn’t changed, but the particular topics have changed.

Recorded on: 6/13/07