Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done by Charlie Baker & Steve Kadish

Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done

Former Governor Charlie Baker, ranked as one of the most popular governors in the United States, with a reputation for getting things done, wrote: “Wedge issues may be great for making headlines but they do not move us forward. Success is measured by what we accomplish together. Our obligation to the people we serve is too important to place politics and partisanship before progress and results.”

For Baker and his longtime associate Steve Kadish, these words are much more than political platitudes. They are at the heart of a method for delivering results—and getting past politics—the two developed while working together in top leadership positions in the public and private sectors. Distilled into a four-step framework, Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done is the much-needed implementation guide for anyone—in public service or in organizations—hamstrung by bureaucracy and politics. With a broad range of examples, Baker, a Republican, and Kadish, a Democrat, show how to move from identifying problems to achieving results in a way that bridges divides instead of exacerbating them.

About the Speakers

The Honorable Charles D. Baker, former Governor of Massachusetts, is currently President of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). He has served as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a top-performing health care insurance provider, and twice as Commonwealth of Massachusetts Cabinet Secretary, leading the Executive Office of Health & Human Services and the Executive Office of Administration & Finance.

Steve Kadish has served as CFO, COO, and in other senior leadership roles in health care and higher education in both the public and the private sectors. Kadish served as Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s first Chief of Staff, and then as a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. He is currently a Senior Advisor at the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University.

Lee Pelton, who was recognized in 2024 by Non-Profit Times in its list of America’s 50 most powerful and influential non-profit leaders, is the CEO & President of The Boston Foundation, one of the nation’s leading philanthropic organizations with $2.0 billion in assets. He joined the Foundation in June 2021, after serving as President of Emerson College (2011-2021) and Willamette University (1998-2011).