Lessons for leading across difference

Leading across difference takes courage, empathy, and skill. Throughout this issue of HKS Magazine, faculty, fellows, and alumni show what it takes to bring people together and drive real change. We capture some of their insights here. 

Executive Education offerings 

The five-day HKS Executive Education program “Leadership in Crises” prepares senior leaders to build bridges across boundaries—and faculty chairs Dutch Leonard and Arnold Howitt have brought in Joseph Pfeifer HKSEE 2006, MC/MPA 2008, the first fire chief to respond to the September 11 attacks, as a guest speaker in the program. 

Read Joe Pfeifer’s story. 

Polling for information 

Leaders can benefit from gauging public opinion to understand what the people they serve care about. For example, the fall 2025 Institute of Politics Youth Poll, which surveyed 2,040 18-to-29-year-old U.S. residents, shows that, for young people in America, trust in institutions continues to erode, with colleges and immigrants standing out as rare sources of strength, while the mainstream media and political parties are viewed more as threats than assets. 

Learn more about the IOP Youth Poll and other Institute of Politics programs.

An alum’s perspective on the Middle East Dialogues 

Professor Tarek Masoud, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance, has brought guests with a range of perspectives on the Middle East to discuss their views through the Middle East Dialogues series. Björn Hoyme MC/MPA 2023, a former student of Masoud’s who has watched the sessions online, says, “What distinguishes the series most, in my view, is Professor Masoud’s approach. He does not shy away from the most difficult and contentious aspects of the Israel–Gaza crisis. Nor does he allow guests to rely on platitudes, evasions, or superficial arguments.” 

Read about the Middle East Dialogues.

Intellectual weightlifting 

“It’s good intellectual weightlifting to take positions that aren’t necessarily your own and try to defend them,” says Stephen Richer, senior practice fellow at the Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. 

Read more about Richer’s “Reading MAGA at Harvard” study group and his podcast with Professor Archon Fung. 

Mandellisms

Brian Mandell, the Mohamed Kamal Senior Lecturer in Negotiation and Public Policy, is known both for teaching generations of students how to lead across difference—and for his pithy words of wisdom that his students call “Mandellisms.”

Here are two of them: “In life, you don’t get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate” and “Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.”

Read about Brian Mandell’s teaching on negotiation.

Receptive listening

Professor Julia Minson’s framework to help people be more receptive in disagreements—and, in turn, more likely to be heard:

H – hedge your point of view

E – emphasize agreement or reference common ground

A – acknowledge your conversation partner’s perspective

R – reframe to the positive (such as choosing to say “I appreciate you hearing me out”)

Read more about Julia Minson’s research on receptiveness.

Going beyond your media bubble 

Media experts say one of the best ways to break out of the divisiveness we are in is to look beyond our own media bubbles. “Yes, we are awash in information, drowning in data and endlessly distracted, and bad actors also have powerful tools for manipulating and misleading the public,” says Professor Nancy Gibbs. 

“But experts in fields from public health to national security to economics and the environment are building trust with audiences through their newsletters and videos. The insights they share are invaluable for experts and non-experts alike,” she says. 

Get more insights from Nancy Gibbs.

Working across the aisle 

Anne Healy MPA/ID 2012, JD 2012 is the chief executive officer and Lauren Lombardo MPP 2022 is the policy director at the Recoding America Fund, a bipartisan philanthropic initiative to improve the functioning of state and federal government. 

Here is what Lombardo and Healy recommend for leading across difference: 

Healy’s advice: Get to know people who have different politics than you. It turns out we’re all human and care about things. Try to put yourself in spaces and communities and organizations where that will just happen. 

Lombardo’s advice: You can’t lead with politics, nor should you. There’s so much to connect on. Relationships are frequently stronger and more fruitful if you aren’t starting from a place where your core identity, or the other person’s core identity, is the political party that they belong to. To paraphrase my old boss, Senator Ben Sasse, there’s just too much tribalism in politics at the national level that doesn’t relate to people’s individual belief systems or what they want to see enacted and achieved in their daily lives. By focusing on who’s in your tribe and who’s not in your tribe, you’re not actually going to be able to meaningfully build relationships across those differences. 

Learn more about their work.