Publications Archive

This list will be updated regularly. You are welcome to share any articles, with proper credit to the author(s). Please note, all listed documents are copyrighted.

2023

The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives (with Josiah Ober), Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023)

Renewing the Civic Bargain,” Princeton University Press Ideas (with Josiah Ober), September 27, 2023

pre-2021

2020

“What Leaders Should We Celebrate In Tomorrow’s Monuments? August 17, 2020

How To Thrive If You Have A Boss Like Caligula,” June 5, 2020

Let’s Bet On Network Innovation To Reopen America,” April 19, 2020

Less Coronavirus Briefing, More Strategy Please,” April 13, 2020

Are We Really Fighting Coronavirus ‘Like A War’?,” April 2, 2020

2019

Will Technology Kill Democracy—Or Reinvent It?,” September 8, 2019

Why Leadership Can’t Be All About You,” July 28, 2019

Healthcare Reform: Where’s The Push For More Innovation?,” forbes.com, May 19, 2019

Why Reinventing Systems Beats Just Solving Problems,”  April 21, 2019

If Robert Mueller Won’t Save Our Democracy, Who Will?,” March 27, 2019

What If Xenophon Were Your Executive Coach?,” March 3, 2019

2018

A Novel New Year’s Resolution: Stop Chasing Novelty In Your Leadership Development,” December 31, 2018

Why A Crumbling World Order Urgently Needs U.S. Leadership, ” October 14, 2018

How To Get Ready For Big System Failure Headed Your Way,” July 8, 2018

To Renew Our Democracy, Get Back To The Core,” January 2, 2018

2017

Want To Achieve Impact In The Nonprofit Sector? Here’s Why And How,” December 3, 2017

Bigger Than Baseball: Leadership Lessons From The 2017 World Series,” November 8, 2017

Why Managers And Leaders Have A Lot To Learn From Trump’s Presidency,” August 6, 2017

How To Be A Horizontal And Vertical Leader At The Same Time,” June 28, 2017

How To Hire And Develop Critical Thinkers,” April 23, 2017

Today’s Democracy: Amend It, Don’t End It,” March 15, 2017

Time To Disrupt Our Powdered-Wig Democracy,” January 1, 2017

2016

Will President Donald Trump Learn On The Job?,” November 21, 2016

Building Community As If People Mattered,” November 6, 2016

Clinton Vs. Trump: Make ‘Em Answer The Five Strategic Questions For Democratic-Style Leaders,” October 17, 2016

How To Manage Know-It-Alls Who Sometimes Don’t Know It All,” September 19, 2016

Wisdom For The Teaming Masses,” September 7, 2016

Stan McChrystal Takes Network War To The Corporate Sector,” August 7, 2016

Mobilizing ‘Big Teams’ For The World’s Biggest Challenges,” July 5, 2016

Six Principles For A Networked Community Strategy,” May 29, 2016

Six Leadership Practices For ‘Wicked’ Problem Solving,” May 15, 2016

Companies Of The People, By The People, For The People,” May 8, 2016

Want To Be A CEO? Five Essential Qualities Boards Look For,” April 10, 2016

How A Stint In ‘Dead-End HR’ Made Anne Mulcahy A Better CEO,” April 3, 2016

How Dominic Barton Cultivated Community Change At McKinsey,”February 24, 2016

Are Platform Businesses Eating The World?,” February 14, 2016

Red Hat’s Open-ish Organization,” January 28, 2016

How Winning Professionals Manage The Three Eras Of Their Careers,” January 16, 2016

2015

More Creative Leadership Lessons From Director Ethan McSweeny,” December 30, 2015

Creating Creativity: Leadership Lessons From Theatrical Director Ethan McSweeny,” December 20, 2015

Should You Follow Your Passion? Or Your Boss?,” December 5, 2015

Is It OK For Leaders To Lie?,” November 15, 2015

Thinking Differently About Inclusiveness,” October 25, 2015

‘Steve Jobs’: See The Movie, Then Search Your Soul,” forbes.com, October 17, 2015

Network Leaders Connect The Dots To Innovate,” October 10, 2015

How Open Should Open Be? Learning From The EU Migrant Crisis,” September 29, 2015

Labor Day 2025: Four Issues Shaping Tomorrow’s Workplace,” September 7, 2015

Reframe Before You Blame: Managing Performance In The Networked Economy,” September 3, 2015

Unlearning Command And Control,” August 10, 2015

Network Lessons From The Leader Who Brought You ‘Downton Abbey’,” forbes.com, August 3, 2015

How To Get The Smartest People In The World To Work For You,” July 24, 2015

pre-2015

2014

“To Fight Ebola, Stop Pointing Fingers,” HBR.org, Oct.21, 2014

https://hbr.org/2014/10/to-fight-ebola-stop-pointing-fingers

“You Need a Community, Not a Network,” HBR.org, Sep.15, 2014

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/09/you-need-a-community-not-a-network/

“CEOs Sometimes Need Outside Help,” HBR.org, Jun.19, 2014.

https://hbr.org/2014/06/ceos-sometimes-need-outside-help

“6 Questions to Accelerate Open Source In Non-Tech Companies,” opensource.com, Sep. 9, 2014.

https://opensource.com/business/14/9/open-new-agenda-business-leaders

2013-2011

“From the Judgment of Leadership to the Leadership of Judgment: The Fallacy of Heroic Decision Making,” (with Tom Davenport), Leader to Leader, Fall 2012, 26-32.

http://www.brookmanville.com/publications/From_the_Judgment_of_Leadership_LTL.pdf

“Congressional Judgment: Built to Lapse?” (with Tom Davenport),  HBR.org, Jan.27, 2012

https://hbr.org/2012/01/congressional-judgment-built-t

Judgment Calls. Twelve Stories of Big Decisions And The Teams That Got Them Right (with Tom Davenport: Harvard Business School Press, 2012)

“Is Your Consultant Enriching Your Judgment—or Retarding It?” HBR.org, Jan.11, 2011.

https://hbr.org/2011/01/is-your-consultant-enriching-y

2010 (and earlier)

“The Next Frontier of Judgment-Across Enterprises,” Harvard Business Review, Sep. 30, 2010.

https://hbr.org/2010/11/the-next-frontier-of-judgment

“What’s the Narrative About Your Leadership?” HBR.org. Oct. 28, 2010.

https://hbr.org/2010/10/whats-the-narrative-about-your

“The Fall of Adrian Fenty and its Lesson in Judgment,” HBR.org, Sep. 23, 2010.

https://hbr.org/2010/09/the-fall-of-adrian-fenty-and-i

“Does Better Judgment Come With Age?” HBR.org, Aug. 24, 2010

https://hbr.org/2010/08/does-better-judgment-come-with

“United Way: The Knowledge Solution,” Inside Knowledge Magazine (www.ikmagazine.com), March 2008 (cover story), 15-17.

Redefining Leadership in A Community Impact Organization: A Case Study of Reframing CEO Skills Amidst Transformational Change,” in R. Edwards and John A. Yankey (edd.), Effectively Managing Nonprofit Organizations (Washington, D.C.: National Association of Social Workers Press, 2006), 457-468. https://books.google.com/books?id=P8bkPQAACAAJ&dq=effectively+managing+nonprofit+organizations&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwil1YKey5vMAhWDdD4KHQziCnUQ6AEIODAA

“Building Customer Communities of Practice for Business Value: Success Factors Profiled from Saba Software and other Case Studies,” in P. Hildreth and C. Kimble (edd.), Knowledge Networks: Innovation Through Communities of Practice (London: Idea Group, Inc., 2004), ch. 10. https://books.google.com/books?id=4ANHY1c6b6YC&pg=PA27&dq=Knowledge+networks+kimble&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdrZDxy5vMAhVHGj4KHWSHBVEQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=Knowledge%20networks%20kimble&f=false

“Learning Culture Through History: From Ancient Athens to Yesterday,” in M. Conner and J. Clawson (edd.), Creating a Learning Culture (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 245-262. https://books.google.com/books?id=NkKHoSgIQAQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Creating+a+Learning+Culture&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjVo96AzJvMAhULGj4KHfqIAuAQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=Creating%20a%20Learning%20Culture&f=false

“Learning in the Knowledge Era,” in J. Chatzkel (ed.), Knowledge Capital: How Knowledge-Based Businesses Really Get Built (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 224-236. https://books.google.com/books?id=kKrmCwAAQBAJ&pg=PR4&dq=Chatzkel+knowledge+capital&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiwkLWWzJvMAhXBez4KHVIMDE8Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=Chatzkel%20knowledge%20capital&f=false

“Organizing Enterprise-wide E-Learning and Human Capital Management,” Chief Learning Officer Magazine, May 2003.

A Company of Citizens. What the World’s First Democracy Teaches Leaders About Building Great Organizations (with Josiah Ober), (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003) https://hbr.org/2003/01/beyond-empowerment-building-a-company-of-citizens

“Beyond Empowerment: Building a Company of Citizens,” (with Josiah Ober), Harvard Business Review, January 2003. https://hbr.org/2003/01/beyond-empowerment-building-a-company-of-citizens

“In Praise of Jargon” (Letter to the Editor), Harvard Business Review, November 2001.

“Learning in the New Economy,” Leader to Leader (Drucker Foundation). Spring, 2001. http://www.leadertoleaderjournal.com/

“What Makes Virtual Organizations Work” (with Lynn Markus and Carol Agres), Sloan Management Review. Fall 2000, 13-26. http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-makes-a-virtual-organization-work-lessons-from-the-opensource-world/

“U1: E-Learning” (profile of Brook Manville), Fast Company. October 2000

“Learning 101” (interview with Lucy McCauley), Fast Company, September 2000 http://www.fastcompany.com/41063/learning-101

“An Anthropologist at Work” (profile of PBM, by Stuart Silverstone). Knowledge Management. August 2000, 44-48.

“Knowledge Management and Complex Adaptive Systems: The Case of McKinsey & Co”.  J. Clippinger (ed.), The Biology of Business (New York: Jossey-Bass, 1999). http://www.amazon.com/The-Biology-Business-Decoding-Enterprise/dp/078794324X

“A Complex Adaptive Approach to Knowledge Sharing,” Knowledge Management Review, May-June 1999, 26-31.

“Looking Ahead” (Letter to the Editor), Harvard Business Review, January-February, 1998.

“How to Find Success,” Fast Company, February-March 1997.

“Ancient Athenian Democracy and Reflections on the Modern Knowledge-Based Corporation,” in  J. Ober and C. Hedrick (edd.), Demokratia. A Conversation on Democracies, Ancient and Modern (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press: 1996), 377-399. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5881.html

“Harvest Your Workers’ Knowledge” (with Nathaniel Foote), Datamation. June 1996.

“Strategy as if Knowledge Mattered” (with Nathaniel Foote), Fast Company, March-April 1996. http://www.fastcompany.com/26696/strategy-if-knowledge-mattered

“Knowledge Management Structures” (profile). Tom Peters, Liberation Management. Knopf: 1992. https://books.google.com/books/about/Liberation_Management.html?id=UpEyBZ97L00C

“Will Full Text Electronic Publishing Bypass the Need for Secondary Services?” Council of Biology Editor Views: 1986.

“Does Online Distribution Diminish Print Usage?” Proceedings of 1984 Online Conference: 1984.