Leadership for Systems Change
Some challenges are too large for any one organization to solve alone. They require leaders who can work across boundaries, align diverse stakeholders, and create change at the systems level.
Through research, convening, and communities of practice, the Alliance and TruePoint Center bring leaders together to advance this work and develop practical insights for those leading large-scale change.
Leadership for Large-Scale Change
Over the past decade, the Alliance has worked alongside leaders seeking to drive change across complex systems. As these efforts scale, we have seen leadership become a critical—and often under-supported—factor in whether ambitious initiatives achieve lasting impact.
In 2025, in partnership with the Aspen Institute, we launched Leadership for Large-Scale Change to better understand what it takes to lead when no single organization controls the system and no individual leader commands sufficient authority or resources. Through research, case studies, and a learning community of systems-change leaders, business leaders, philanthropists, and public-sector leaders, the initiative identified practices and tools for leading effectively at this level of complexity.
Building on that foundation, and with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alliance is now developing Leading for Large-Scale Impact in collaboration with Harvard Business School. The program will bring together 12 leadership teams from some of the most consequential systems-change initiatives to strengthen their leadership capacity, accelerate progress on the challenges they are tackling, and learn from one another.
This next stage will also deepen our understanding of how best to support leaders undertaking large-scale change—generating practical insights that can strengthen not only the participating initiatives, but the broader field.
Building Pathways to Mid-Wage Jobs
A Partnership with the
Through our partnership with the National Talent Collaborative (NTC), the Alliance helps strengthen skills-based pathways to mid-wage, family-sustaining jobs by amplifying employer leadership and cross-sector collaboration.
The Mid-Wage Jobs Accelerator Group convenes regional CEO organizations working to connect more workers to high-quality employment opportunities. Participants work from real challenges and initiatives in their communities, drawing on peer experience and expert perspectives to sharpen strategy and accelerate progress.
The Healthcare Workforce Accelerator Group applies this same approach to critical healthcare workforce shortages, focusing on high-demand roles including registered nurses, surgical technicians, and radiologic technologists. By building on promising regional models, the initiative helps accelerate adoption and share learning nationally.
Climate Action Pathfinders
In Collaboration with
Climate Action Pathfinders is a partnership with the Alliance and the TruePoint Center to empower community climate leaders to innovate and learn together to advance community goals and collectively reduce carbon emissions.
Across the country, community climate leaders are proving what’s possible. Some, for example, have achieved solar adoption rates three to seven times higher than their state averages. These pathfinders are driving bottom-up action, harnessing renewable power and electrification to create more affordable, resilient, and thriving communities.
Many community leaders, however, need more resources, connections, and support to sustain and scale their impact. There is an opportunity for these leaders to join forces to learn, collaborate, and innovate together, in order to achieve even greater progress. Climate Action Pathfinders makes this possible through sustained peer learning and dialogue, strategic support from staff, and input from world-class experts.
Unlocking AI Value from the Frontline
AI is changing how work gets done. The question isn't whether organizations will adopt it, but how — and whether its greatest value comes from replacing people or from making them more effective.
The Alliance takes a frontline-first approach to AI: Engaging the people closest to the work to identify opportunities, shape solutions, and put the technology to use in building better ways of working. Our early AI Pathfinder Practitioner Cohorts have reinforced a core insight, that technical execution matters, but lasting value depends on establishing the trust and leadership necessary to bring people across the organization into shaping the changes required.
Through our practitioner cohorts, peer learning, and work with organizations actively implementing AI, we're building and testing approaches that use AI to unlock innovation and grow organizational capability. If you share that ambition, and if you want to learn alongside others tackling the same challenges, join us in our next cohort to explore what a human-centered approach to AI can make possible.