Professor Julie Battilana to deliver the keynote address at this year’s Social Outcomes Conference

Julie Battilana is a professor of organisational behavior and social innovation at the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School, where she is also the founder and faculty chair of the Social Innovation and Change Initiative.

Her research examines the politics of change in organisations and in society, especially focusing on organisations and individuals that initiate and implement changes that diverge from the taken-for-granted norm. She is the author of two books: The Working Manifesto, co-authored by Isabelle Ferreras and Dominique Méda (Forthcoming, University of Chicago Press, originally published in French by Le Seuil, 2020), and Power, for All: How it Really Works and Why It Is Everyone’s Business, co-authored by Tiziana Casciaro, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2021). She lives in Belmont, MA.

Her most recent book, Power, for All, offers a timely, democratised vision of power. Everyone can understand how power operates, and research shows that once you understand, you can take action to improve life for yourself and others. We all must engage with power to ensure we protect our freedoms and act together as enlightened citizens.

Disrupting who’s at the top and who’s at the bottom is often daunting, but Battilana and coauthor Casciaro show how those with less power can band together to challenge established structures and make them more balanced by agitating, innovating, and orchestrating change. They also teach readers how to power-map their workplace to find who has influence and why, and plan for and bring about enduring power shifts.

With cross-sector collaborations being central to this year’s Social Outcomes Conference, Battilana’s research will resonate with many participants. Power, for All is an essential guide to understanding, navigating, and sharing power in our relationships, organisa­tions, and society.

How can organisations have more influence at both local and national levels? In what way could organisations effectively create trust and join forces to drive social change? How can governments work with other sectors to improve outcomes? Join our conference this September to take part in the conversation.