Thu, 13 Aug 2026 07:54:59 -0700WeeblyTue, 18 May 2010 22:15:49 GMThttps://www.ethicalleadership.org/gs-blog-3/may-18th-2010 As leaders of organizations and community efforts, we know you are committed not just to survival, but to innovation and sustainability. This Gracious Space Blog and the services of the Center for Ethical leadership are intended to give you ideas and connections with other leaders and top minds focused on leadership.

This month we share what Dr. Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School has to say about the new leadership lexicon. The new leadership lexicon, in her words, is all about purpose, values and partnerships. Dr. Kanter outlined five points at the Community Leadership Association Conference in April (where we also presented Gracious Space).  We note with gratitude that her advice aligns elegantly with the Center’s approach to leadership and with the Gracious Space work.

1. Have a noble purpose. There is no leadership without a noble purpose.  What is the big, hairy, audacious goal you and your organization are dreaming of? What innovation will improve the world?  Dr. Kanter suggested that purpose, values, and partnerships will guide us in making our noble purposes real. The purpose is the reason for our work; values form the glue that holds us together; and partnerships, especially between non-profits and for-profits, make real and sustainable change happen.

Dr. Kanter shared an example of corporate leadership with a noble purpose – Proctor and Gamble’s product PUR. This innovation is a portable water purification package, about the size of a ketchup packet, that can decontaminate 2 ½ gallons of drinking water, enough to sustain a typical household for 2-3 days. It reduces pathogen-induced diarrhea — the top killer of children in much of the developing world at a rate of 4,000 kids per day.

Each packet costs a few cents and Procter & Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water program has provided them free to some countries hit hard by sudden water emergencies such as floods and earthquakes. The company has been developing the packets since 1995 in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the new leadership lexicon, boundaries blur when leaders share purpose, values and partnership with others heading in the same direction.  At the Center, we also believe these three areas of leadership are vital. Our website provides a facilitator’s guide to the Core Values Exercise, and the entire Gracious Space Change Framework is built on the notion of co-constructing purpose and plans to embolden our work for the common good.

2. Find solutions collaboratively. Pick a target problem and mobilize partnerships to solve the problem collaboratively.  Dr. Kanter’s second point focuses on collaboration and is relationship oriented. Partnerships mean that solutions are smarter, because they include more information from more of the system.  Similarly, the Gracious Space model asks us to “invite the stranger” and “learn in public.” It asks us to be more open to relationships so that we may work better together on the issues that matter.

The Center recently facilitated a series of dialogues for the Tacoma Community Foundation around ending youth violence. Using the principles of Gracious Space, youth and adults designed and facilitated the sessions. Because the youth were present, the dialogues yielded some new information, that: 1) youth are more likely to reject violence when they have a creative outlet through which to express themselves, such as art, and 2) that these were the very programs being cut due to budget shortfalls. Working together, the foundation and its partners are restoring those programs because they will provide real and healthy alternatives to youth.

3. Convene. Hold conversations and use self-organizing tools, Dr. Kanter advised. She told the story about IBM, which in 2003 undertook the first reexamination of its values in nearly 100 years. Through "Values-Jam," an unprecedented 72-hour discussion on IBM's global intranet, IBMers came together to define the essence of the company. The result? A set of core values that shape the way they lead, decide, and act.

They followed this in 2006 with the Innovation Jam. This online brainstorm brought together more than 150,000 people from 104 countries and 67 companies. As a result, 10 new IBM businesses were launched with seed investment totaling $100 million.

Convening is also a vital way for community leaders to find each other for common purposes.  The Center has hosted six Confluence events since 1999, each time bringing together 50-60 people for 2-3 days to tackle complex social issues. The Confluence creates an environment of Gracious Space and uses dialogue, systems-level thinking, and collaborative action to help people speed their work toward social and cultural change.

4. Let go. Let the people do it. Dr. Kanter quoted a leader in Brazil who started a development initiative, and later admitted, “I knew I was successful when I lost control of it.” As leaders we are good at diving in, taking charge, and fixing. Yet our noble purpose will never become a movement, nor will it be sustainable, without the dozens or hundreds of people who take it on and make it their own.

5. Persist and persevere. When we are engaged in change, middles are difficult. We run into difficulties forecasting, roadblocks distract our efforts and resources, we lose momentum, and face the critics.  Dr Kanter even has a name for it – Dr. Kanter’s Law – which says: Everything can look like a failure in the middle.

“The first thing to do when something isn’t working is to say, ‘We must still be in the middle,’” says Dr. Kanter. “That’s very helpful and reflects reality. Everybody gets excited at the beginning of big efforts. In the midst of that excitement, I would say, ‘Now we're going to plan for when it all goes wrong.’  People resist doing this because it's a downer after all of that positive energy. But if you get groups working on that, they not only get very imaginative about the things that could go wrong, they also feel stronger because they've anticipated the worst.”

In the Gracious Space Change Framework, we call this Opening to Risk. What is the turbulence, conflict or stubborn pattern that lurks alongside your change effort and could derail all your hard work if you do not pay attention to it? Leaders need to face the difficulties, have the hard conversations and plan for contingencies. Doing so will inevitably make the team and effort stronger, allowing you to move into collective, sustainable creativity.

There is an old saying, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Dr. Kanter reminded us that there is a lot of territory in between those two points!  We need to add the practical steps: first dream it, then put it into noble terms, align around values, be creative and flexible, line up partners, then you can do it.  The new leadership lexicon is all about finding permanent solutions to the big problems rather than just helping people deal with the problems better. Dr. Kanter’s advice and the practical approaches offered by Gracious Space can help you apply the new leadership lexicon in your own practice of leadership.

The Gracious Space Change Framework will be published in 2011.

Dr. Kanter is a professor at Harvard Business School, where she specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. She chairs the Advanced Leadership Initiative and hosts the HBR weekly blog. Professor Kanter has been named one of the "50 most powerful women in the world,” has authored or co-authored 18 books and received 23 honorary doctoral degrees.

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