Leadership for Social Change: I / We / It

Published 2015
By: Heather McLeod Grant, Chris Block, Lance Fors

For leaders focused on creating solutions that benefit everyone, we have to start thinking very differently about leadership and about scale. We need to start thinking about how to transform systems that are already at scale (e.g., education reform), as well as how to align many fragmented efforts to achieve real transformation. To create this kind of change, we need collective problem-solving mindsets and skills that focus beyond individual gain or institution-building.

We need approaches that mobilize large numbers of people, using new tools. We need to embrace 21st century strategies to build the world that we want: one that is more peaceful, just, and sustainable. The good news is that new ways of thinking about leadership—and new tools and approaches for creating large-scale social change—are now emerging. In this paper, we explore these new mindsets, tools, and skills through the framework of "I/We/It."