Virtual event with Mitchell Weiss/We The Possibility

More about the book:

From an expert on public entrepreneurship and a former public official himself comes encouragement that, yes, we can still solve daunting public problems, and timely lessons for how.

We’ve come to accept the notion that government can't do new things or solve tough challenges, that it's too big and slow and bureaucratic. It doesn’t have to be that way, says former public official, now Harvard Business School professor, Mitchell Weiss. The truth is that entrepreneurial spirit and savvy in government can be harnessed to transform the response to big problems at all levels.

The key, Weiss argues, is a shift from a mindset of "Probability Government" – overly focused on safe solutions and mimicking "best" practices – to "Possibility Government." This means public leadership and management that’s willing to boldly imagine new possibilities and to experiment. It will also take, he says, public leaders and all the rest of us moving towards possibility together.

Weiss shares the basic tenets of this new way of governing: Government that can imagine. Government that can try new things. Government that can help the many.

The lessons unfold in the timely episodes Weiss has seen and studied: the U.S. Special Operations Command prototyping of a hoverboard for chasing pirates; a heroin hackathon in opioid-ravaged Cincinnati; a series of experiments in Singapore to rein in Covid-19, among many others.

At a crucial moment in the evolution of government's role in our society, We the Possibility provides inspiration and a positive model, along with crucial guardrails, to help shape progress for generations to come.

About the Author

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Mitchell Weiss is a Professor of Management Practice and the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Fellow at Harvard Business School. He created and teaches the school's course on public entrepreneurship. Prior to joining HBS in 2014, Weiss was chief of staff to Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino. During this time, he cofounded the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics.