Julie Battilana

Today, we are facing a multidimensional crisis: the intersection of a global health pandemic, rising income inequality, continued racial and gender inequalities, and democratic decline, with climate change promising further instability. This many-pronged threat is fundamentally a crisis of “power concentration,” says Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School professor Julie Battilana. To tackle this crisis, change makers need to develop a deep understanding of the inner workings of power. In this presentation, Battilana dives into the essential ingredients for effecting social change: what change makers must know about power and how to use that knowledge to confront our obstacles, fight the massive concentration of power and change our social and economic systems to make them fairer, greener and more just. Leaning on her two books — 2021’s award-winning “Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business“, for which she conducted over 100 interviews with change leaders, and the newly co-authored “Democratize Work: The Case for Reorganizing the Economy” (May 2022) – and her research on change implementation, this session covers the fundamentals of power, debunks three common (and dangerous!) myths about power, and reveals the importance of power sharing while also holding power accountable to change the systems that perpetuate inequality and environmental destruction.

Amid mounting inequalities tied to race, gender and class — and with huge implications for the ecological fate of the planet — Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School professor Julie Battilana relates that only 20% of the world’s population lives in completely free countries. By democratizing access to knowledge about power, we can enable others to be more effective and influential leaders and change makers. Expanding on concepts presented in her two co-authored books, the award-winning “Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business” (August 2021) and “Democratize Work: The Case for Reorganizing the Economy” (May 2022), Battilana re-frames for business leaders the current tensions between democracy and capitalism as opportunities for renewal and transformation.

How does an organization truly become inclusive? You need a cultural change, says Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School professor Julie Battilana. But the first step is understanding power, where it comes from and the power hierarchy within an organization. In this presentation filled with lessons from her award-winning 2021 co-authored book “Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business,” Battilana unveils a framework for evaluating an organization’s systems and processes to optimize for innovation. She also demonstrates new power-balancing dynamics that empower new change makers to share fresh ideas.

“Power” doesn’t have to be a dirty word anymore. Today, it’s something that can be learned and harnessed for personal and organizational gain, says Professor Julie Battilana. Through her teaching at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, and as the founder and faculty chair of the Social Innovation and Change Initiative, Battilana has taught and worked closely with hundreds of change makers and leaders in social innovation across multiple sectors. In this talk based on two decades of researching the politics of change in organizations and society and more than 100 interviews with people with different paths to and through power, Battilana reveals the fundamentals of power, debunks the common myths surrounding it and discusses how to harness power for positive impact in our lives and in the world. This presentation helps audiences understand and navigate power in their relationships, organizations and society, and see power not as a dirty business, but instead a positive force that can be used for good.