New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You

From two influential and visionary thinkers comes a big idea that is changing the way movements catch fire and ideas spread in our highly connected world.

For the vast majority of human history, power has been held by the few. "Old power" is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful spend it carefully, like currency. But the technological revolution of the past two decades has made possible a new form of power, one that operates differently, like a current. "New power" is made by many; it is open, participatory, often leaderless, and peer-driven. Like water or electricity, it is most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it, but to channel it.
     New power is behind the rise of participatory communities like Facebook and YouTube, sharing services like Uber and Airbnb, and rapid-fire social movements like Brexit and #BlackLivesMatter. It explains the unlikely success of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and the unlikelier victory of Donald Trump in 2016. And it gives ISIS its power to propagate its brand and distribute its violence. Even old power institutions like the Papacy, NASA, and LEGO have tapped into the strength of the crowd to stage improbable reinventions.
     In New Power, the business leaders/social visionaries Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms provide the tools for using new power to successfully spread an idea or lead a movement in the twenty-first century. Drawing on examples from business, politics, and social justice, they explain the new world we live in--a world where connectivity has made change shocking and swift and a world in which everyone expects to participate.

JEREMY HEIMANS is the co-founder and CEO of Purpose, a company specializing in building social movements. In 2005, he co-founded GetUp, an Australian political organization with more members than all of Australia's political
parties combined. He was named one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business in 2012. HENRY TIMMS is executive director of 92nd Street Y. In 2011 he founded #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving that is still going strong. In 2014 he was named the NonProfit Times Influencer of the Year, and in 2015 one of Crain's New York Business's "40 Under 40."