Love your take on these.. The hard problems require many people to come together and attempt to solve them from multiple angles all at the same time and in co-ordination..
The way our systems are set up, they dont encourage this kind of collaboration.. So, it will take a leader determined to bring together the different attempts at solving any of these hard problems and enable collaborations at scale, using the soft power that you mentioned in your previous post.
Our legacy systems were built for vertical control: owning the assets and commanding the workforce. We know the tech giants of the last decade didn’t win by building everything - they won by building the operating system that others run on.
The opportunity now is to emulate that platform model with a 2026 upgrade: swap winner‑takes‑all extraction for positive‑sum orchestration, and use soft power to lower the friction for others to plug in, align standards and data, and turn “many parallel attempts” into shared infrastructure for a solution.
And there’s even more on the table for leaders who want to tackle hard problems: their own drive, combined with tech, ecosystems, and new capital, means they can move faster with fewer gatekeepers and less‑effective incumbents in the way.
This requires leaders who are willing to make the effort and keep at it. Question is - how does one find such leaders and help them get to the position from where they can have an impact.. any thoughts about this?
You’re right - this does depend on a different type of leader. Fortunately, they already exist in meaningful numbers.
They tend to sit in roles where they’ve had to deliver outcomes through others rather than over others:
* Senior people in corporates who have run cross‑functional programs, ESG/impact portfolios, or complex client transformations with no clean line authority and tight budgets.
* Ex‑international aid and development leaders who are used to working in fragile environments, negotiating with governments, NGOs, and communities, and making progress with high scrutiny and low resources.
* City and regional leaders, social entrepreneurs, and ecosystem builders who convene public–private coalitions rather than owning assets outright.
Common traits: they listen, translate across cultures and functions, are trusted by different stakeholder groups, and are comfortable taking a “platform” role - setting standards, creating shared infrastructure, and letting others take the spotlight.
Where do we find them?
Inside large organisations: people who are repeatedly asked to “fix” cross‑silo problems (strategy, transformation, sustainability, partnerships, PMOs).
In the edges of the system: innovation labs, philanthropic arms, B‑corps, civic tech, local government, and international NGOs.
In existing coalitions: multi‑stakeholder taskforces around climate, health, skills, or digital - the ones who are doing the quiet convening, agenda‑setting, and follow‑through.
The next step, I think, is to identify, invite, and amplify them: spot the people already doing coalition work, invite them into projects and positions where their soft power matters, and then amplify their impact by connecting them to each other, giving them flexible capital, and removing unnecessary gatekeepers.
Love your take on these.. The hard problems require many people to come together and attempt to solve them from multiple angles all at the same time and in co-ordination..
The way our systems are set up, they dont encourage this kind of collaboration.. So, it will take a leader determined to bring together the different attempts at solving any of these hard problems and enable collaborations at scale, using the soft power that you mentioned in your previous post.
Yes, I agree, Mukesh.
Our legacy systems were built for vertical control: owning the assets and commanding the workforce. We know the tech giants of the last decade didn’t win by building everything - they won by building the operating system that others run on.
The opportunity now is to emulate that platform model with a 2026 upgrade: swap winner‑takes‑all extraction for positive‑sum orchestration, and use soft power to lower the friction for others to plug in, align standards and data, and turn “many parallel attempts” into shared infrastructure for a solution.
And there’s even more on the table for leaders who want to tackle hard problems: their own drive, combined with tech, ecosystems, and new capital, means they can move faster with fewer gatekeepers and less‑effective incumbents in the way.
This requires leaders who are willing to make the effort and keep at it. Question is - how does one find such leaders and help them get to the position from where they can have an impact.. any thoughts about this?
You’re right - this does depend on a different type of leader. Fortunately, they already exist in meaningful numbers.
They tend to sit in roles where they’ve had to deliver outcomes through others rather than over others:
* Senior people in corporates who have run cross‑functional programs, ESG/impact portfolios, or complex client transformations with no clean line authority and tight budgets.
* Ex‑international aid and development leaders who are used to working in fragile environments, negotiating with governments, NGOs, and communities, and making progress with high scrutiny and low resources.
* City and regional leaders, social entrepreneurs, and ecosystem builders who convene public–private coalitions rather than owning assets outright.
Common traits: they listen, translate across cultures and functions, are trusted by different stakeholder groups, and are comfortable taking a “platform” role - setting standards, creating shared infrastructure, and letting others take the spotlight.
Where do we find them?
Inside large organisations: people who are repeatedly asked to “fix” cross‑silo problems (strategy, transformation, sustainability, partnerships, PMOs).
In the edges of the system: innovation labs, philanthropic arms, B‑corps, civic tech, local government, and international NGOs.
In existing coalitions: multi‑stakeholder taskforces around climate, health, skills, or digital - the ones who are doing the quiet convening, agenda‑setting, and follow‑through.
The next step, I think, is to identify, invite, and amplify them: spot the people already doing coalition work, invite them into projects and positions where their soft power matters, and then amplify their impact by connecting them to each other, giving them flexible capital, and removing unnecessary gatekeepers.