The author of 'Think Outside the Building' explains why established structures can stifle innovation

Published weeks before Covid hit the US, the title "Think Outside the Building" foreshadows the unpredictable, pandemic-forced work from home experiment and the ensuing debate over the future of the office itself. But the title is meant to symbolize much more than just physical structures. "Buildings are a powerful metaphor for all the established structures…all the things that confine us to thinking a certain way or only talking to people exactly like us," said author and Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The book is really a book about leadership, and is based on dozens of case studies from Harvard's Advanced Leadership Institute, which Kanter co-founded in 2005.