Governor Charlie Baker to release first book

Governor Charlie Baker and then-chief of staff Steve Kadish settled in for their second day of work at the State House in January 2015.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff

Governor Charlie Baker will add a new title before he leaves office next year: author.

In May, the second-term Republican will release his first book, “Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done,” a 300-page “implementation guide” he wrote with his former chief of staff, Steve Kadish, according to Baker’s office and an online summary.

The book, which is being published by Harvard Business Review Press, is expected to draw on both Baker’s nearly two terms in office and his time in the private sector, but it is not described as a memoir. Instead, Baker and Kadish offer a “four-step framework . . . for anyone in public service, as well as for leaders and managers in large organizations hamstrung by bureaucracy and politics,” according to a summary.

It was not immediately clear when Baker began writing the book, but an aide said it has been “in the works for years.”

“We wanted to take what we learned tackling problems from over two decades of working in both public and private sectors and put them down on paper so others in government or in big institutions can learn from our experiences,” Baker and Kadish said in a statement released by Baker’s office Wednesday.

Baker is a former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Kadish served as Northeastern University’s chief operating officer before joining the Baker administration in 2015, and also previously worked at Harvard Pilgrim.

The two are also close. When Kadish left his post as chief of staff in 2017 after 2½ years, Baker said they had worked together four times at that point. “I love this man,” Baker said then.

The book, they said in their statement, is also about the “hard work of so many talented people in and around the Administration.”

“We think it can help others deliver better products and services for their constituents, and in so doing help build trust that is so essential for our government and democracy,” they said.

The book is scheduled to be released May 24.

Baker’s office said he intends to donate all its proceeds to the Massachusetts Wonderfund, a private nonprofit that provides grants and funding for children involved with the state’s Department of Children and Families. Lauren Baker, the governor’s wife, serves on the Wonderfund’s board.

The book appears to hew closely to the message of pragmatic, bipartisan governing Baker has long promoted. Its summary notes that Kadish is a Democrat, and that they promise to offer a “broad range of examples” showing that government can be “an example of effective operation, not just a hopeless bureaucracy.”

The book’s summary also cites the Jan. 6 attack last year on the US Capitol, saying it threatened the “very core of our democracy.” Proving that government can work, it reads, is crucial to ensuring its future.

“Wedge issues may be great for making headlines,” Baker writes in the book, according to the summary, “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.”

Baker, 65, said in December he would not seek a third term. His office said he has no book tours or “major promotional efforts” planned around the book’s launch.