Businesses can choose to embrace change or ignore it—but they cannot stop it. When a company chooses not to change, the industry simply evolves past it. To thrive, organizations must continually reinvent themselves by imagining and implementing new initiatives.
40% of newly created companies last less than 10 years.
50% of Fortune 500 companies will be replaced by new companies in 59 years or less.
Source: www.businessweek.com
“THE PEOPLE WHO ARE CRAZY ENOUGH TO THINK THEY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD ARE THE ONES WHO DO.”
With these words, Apple Inc., and its leader, Steve Jobs, catalyzed a movement. Whenever Jobs took the stage to talk about new Apple products, the whole world seemed to stop and listen. That’s because Jobs was offering a vision of the future. He wanted you to feel what the world might someday be like, and trust him to take you there.
As a leader, you have the same potential to not only anticipate the future and invent creative initiatives, but to also inspire those around you to support and execute your vision.
In Illuminate, acclaimed author Nancy Duarte and communications expert Patti Sanchez equip you with the same communication tools that great leaders like Jobs, Howard Schultz, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to move people. Duarte and Sanchez lay out a plan to help you lead people through the five stages of transformation using speeches, stories, ceremonies, and symbols.
This visual and accessible communication guidebook will show you how Apple, Starbucks, IBM, charity: water, and others have mobilized people to embrace bold changes.To envision the future is one thing, getting others to go there with you is another. By harnessing the power of persuasive communication you, too, can turn your idea into a movement.
Leaders Move Others Forward
Leaders aren’t just the people at the top of the org chart—a leader is anyone who can see a better future and rally people to reach it. Whether you’re an executive, entrepreneur, or individual contributor, you have the potential to motivate people through your words and actions. As a leader, it’s your job to anticipate the future. You have to stand at the border between “now” and “next,” working to shape the future and bring it forth. Leading people requires not only sensing when change is afoot (and when it should be) but communicating your vision in a way that motivates others to follow you there. People, or “travelers” as we refer to them, will help you realize your dream if it resonates with them.
About the Authors
NANCY DUARTE is a communications expertand the CEO of Duarte, Inc., the largest design firm in Silicon Valley. She is the author of Resonate: PresentVisual Stories that Transform Audiences, Slide:ology: TheArt and Science of Creating Great Presentations, and HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations. She has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review,and many other outlets.
PATTI SANCHEZ, the SVP of strategic services for Duarte, has distilled twenty-five years of experience as a communicator into this book. She has led transformative communications initiatives for brands including Cisco,Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, LexisNexis, Nike, Symantec, VMware, and Compassion International, and has taught hundreds of leaders to become more empathetic and effective communicators. Her work has been honored with awards from IABC, BMA, and Vital Speeches of the Day.
