Shed Your Probability Mindset, On the Road to Possibility You Need Ideas, Test Ideas and Don't Scale Them Linearly, But Exponentially (build, measure, learn model) - Interview with Mitchell Weiss Author of We The Possibility and Former Chief of Staff to Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino.

“We get the government we invent.” That’s the concept behind Mitchell Weiss’ book “We the Possibility: Harnessing Public Entrepreneurship to Solve Our Most Urgent Problems.” Weiss, a professor of management practice and the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Fellow at the Harvard Business School, joined Gov Actually for a discussion on public entrepreneurship in government and how government can continue to evolve despite being thought of as inherently risk-averse. But really, Weiss says, that’s not the case. “Government actually as an entity is not, should not be risk-averse. Nobel Prizes have been awarded on this basis…Government should be risk-neutral by virtue of its size, its scale, its taxing authority. It’s most positioned to absorb risk.” The people, however, are. Still, Weiss says, “we have to acknowledge the main reason they’re risk-averse…is because they’re people. People don’t like risk.” So if other sectors have entrepreneurship, why can’t government?

Evan and Ajay talk with Harvard Business School Professor and former Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Business Mitchell Weiss about his book We the Possibility. Mitchell Weiss discusses why government should transition to "possibility government", how government should be more accepting of failure, and how civic technologists can make the biggest impact in government.

Possibility government. Mitchell Weiss, Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, joined the podcast to talk about his new book We the Possibility. He discusses how bringing entrepreneurship into government can help solve complex problems and improve services. He also shared how public entrepreneurship is different than starting a pilot program.

Host Amy Taylor hands over the reins of the show to Stephen Goldsmith, former Mayor of the City of Indianapolis, as he interviews Mitchell Weiss, Harvard Business School professor and published author about his new book “We the Possibility: Harnessing Public Entrepreneurship to Solve Our Most Urgent Problems.” Engaging because of their rapport, inspiring because of their experience, and timely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this episode is the perfect platform for the Town Haul season opener!

Mitch Weiss, Professor at Harvard Business School and author of We the Possibility: Harnessing Public Entrepreneurship to Solve Our Most Urgent Problems, shares his experience working in public office and using entrepreneurial thinking to solve significant problems. Mitch recounts his story during the fatal Boston Marathon Bombings. He was Chief-of-Staff to Boston’s mayor, Thomas Menino, at the time, and was responsible for implementing an innovative initiative to aid victims and direct funds to them efficiently.

He also unpacks Public Entrepreneurship, a relatively novel concept, and stresses that governments need to emulate what works in the private sector and apply it to the public sector. To conclude the episode, Patrick and Mitch discuss examples of countries that have successfully implemented entrepreneurial thinking in public problems; and share practical ideas on how you too can get involved, contribute, and help make a change.

On today’s episode of Catalysts for Change, Jill talks to Mitchell Weiss, Richard L. Menschel and Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. The former chief of staff to Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, Jill talks to Mitch about his new book, We the Possibility. We talk to Mitch about the contents in the book, the importance of his concept of possibility government and the difference between probability government, and more.

Melvin Carter, the mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, swept into office in 2018, promising to improve equity. In his campaign, he had spoken from experience about what it felt like to be pulled over by police as a Black man. He wanted to create a new public safety framework that would be rooted in community. But then the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out much of the city’s budget and the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by a police officer in neighboring Minneapolis sparked calls to defund the police. How would Mayor Carter make these changes happen?

Making voting more accessible through technology could allow more people to take part in elections. But it also poses critical downsides, if the product fails or there are security failures. Harvard Business School professor Mitchell Weiss debates the risks, rewards, and business models for mobile voting in his case study on “Voatz.”

Singapore officials added a nationwide, Bluetooth-based contact tracing program called TraceTogether to their suite of Covid-19-fighting strategies, which already included human-led tracing. The new digital program’s success would rely on mitigating privacy issues. Would Singaporeans adopt TraceTogether? As Singapore’s government opened up the technology to the world, would you? In this podcast, Professor Mitch Weiss discusses his new case study.

Toronto is experimenting with smart-city concepts envisioned by Google spinoff Sidewalk Labs. Harvard Business School Professors Leslie John and Mitch Weiss discuss the tradeoffs of using technology to improve modern city life at potential costs to digital privacy from their case, “Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up.” Is it worth it?

What’s the value of crowdsourcing technological solutions to societal problems? Could a hackathon help solve the heroin crisis in Cincinnati, Ohio? Professor Mitch Weiss discusses the underlying skepticism and emerging realities that unfold during protagonist Annie Rittgers’ journey to organizing a successful hackathon in his case "Hacking Heroin."

ShotSpotter provides gunfire detection sensors to cities across the United States. CEO Ralph Clark is interested in taking the company beyond its business-to-government sales model and into new markets. Could his company sell to schools and colleges? Could the technology be adapted for indoor applications like shopping malls and movie theaters? Could cities use it as an early alert to a terrorist attack? Professor Mitch Weiss discusses the difficulties moving from one business model to another, and how successful companies make the transition.