Art Kleiner - Email Newsletter
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MegaCommunitiesSeveral books are coming out this year in which I take some personal pride; I hope to alert you to them with this opt-in list over the next few months. The first, published March 18, is called MegaCommunities: How Leaders of Governments, Businesses and Non-Profits Can Tackle Today’s Global Challenges Together. The authors are Mark Gerencser, Reginald Van Lee, Fernando Napolitano, and Christopher Kelly, all vice presidents of Booz Allen Hamilton (the firm, now called Booz & Company) that publishes the magazine I edit, strategy+business). The publisher is Palgrave Macmillan. The website is: http://www.megacommunities.com It’s an unusual book. Four very different authors propose that complex problems (global climate change, preparing for pandemics, etc.) can’t be solved by any single large entity — public, private, or non-profit. But concerted engagements with government, business and civil-sector leaders seem to work: at least if you know how to put them into practice. A “megacommunity” is a community of organizations, where leaders (and people throughout the organizations) come together to solve the problems they can’t solve alone. To many readers of this list, this will be a familiar idea. But this is the first book I’ve seen that pulls it in context at the proper level of aggregation — not a technique, but a type of interaction among interdependent institutions. (Future Search, dialogue, World Café, broad-based scenario exercises, “war-games,” “practice fields,” and various other forms of collective engagement have emerged in my opinion, as ways to foster megacommunities, though people don’t always call them that.) Some senior leaders are apparently paying attention to this book; it has blurbs from people like Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, former NATO Supreme Commander Ian Forbes, Aspen Institute President and Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson (who wrote the foreword), and Rocky Mountain Institute founder Amory Lovins.... MegaCommunities has been in preparation about four years – starting with a series of interviews conducted with leaders of government, business and non-profits around the world. Since I was involved a bit backstage, I’d like to mention a couple of other people who were critical: Michael Delurey, an expert on “geocomplexity” and related solutions who served as the book’s research director; Larry Frascella, a writer who served as its consulting editor; and s+b’s publisher Jon Gage, who helped conceive of its launch. This was a difficult book to create. In other words, it was a microcosm of the world it is trying to help. I think it’s an easy book to read; but not necessarily easy to put into practice. You might be drawn to it, however, because megacommunity work is effective, compelling, engrossing and highly rewarding. Even fun. (Especially now that the book’s done.) ==== Correction on Shambhala Institute’s website: Three weeks ago, I sent a note mentioning the Shambhala Institute Regional Intensive. The link was not quite correct; it had an extraneous period which led some people to write me and ask if the session had been cancelled. The correct link is: http://www.shambhalainstitute.org/alia/2008ontario/home.html And the description of the session, again: May 4-7, Peterborough, Ontario: The Future of Leadership. As part of the Shambhala Institute’s new Regional Intensive program, I’m leading a scenario planning session on leadership over the next 10-20 years. In this 12-hour module (taking place across three days), we’ll consider how societies and organizations will evolve, going forward, and the types of opportunities and challenges that will face leaders between now and 2027. Our purpose: To prepare ourselves, our organizations, and our communities for more effective action. Our method: The scenario planning approach pioneered at Royal Dutch/Shell in the 1970s and 1980s. The Shambhala Institute’s sessions are unique and very powerful, in part because of their combination of meditation, arts, and organizational change work. This session is, I believe, the first of its kind and it may set a very powerful precedent. Thanks very much as always for your consideration and interest. -- Art Kleiner, editor in chief, strategy+business
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