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

by Jeremy Heimans

Leading an old power organization through transition isn’t about “breaking shit.” It requires a tricky blend of tradition and innovation, past and future. Those efforts need shapeshifters who can show—by example—how to get the best of both worlds.

This section is timely with my new role at AF Group

But despite good intentions, these people often end up as “digital beards,” providing cover for a risk-averse leader and an unchanging strategy, and relegated to the margins of power and influence within the organization.

They are often a small department paid to think about the future, resented by the rest of the organization for not doing what is considered “real work.”

in reality are often siloed and ...

Instead of the “beard,” what organizations really need is a “bridge,” that person who can meaningfully connect his organization to the new power world, making the...

A bridge’s work is structural...

was effective at navigating internal systems and culture, painstakingly built up community management

worked

to integrate his team (and the wider community they represented) with the product designers, marke...

The targets were crude tools, but they had real value. They ushered in a more accountable culture and delivered some tangible improvements.

Yet they often came at a cost. Achieving them frequently had a negative impact on staff morale and patient care. For many the culture of targets was a culture of fear, governed by anxious higher-ups.

“hitting the target, but missing...

Change Day,

a grassroots effort to mobilize people throughout the NHS system to pledge one thing they might do to improve life for patients.

Good idea to model for AF Group and desire to focus on customer experience

It offered a lot of freedom and few conditions or rules, encouraging people to choose just one commitment they might make on the same day as their colleagues.

Change Day was a classic ACE campaign, with a clear call to action that connected staff around an inspiring goal and an extensible frame that participants could make their own.

Change Day fundamentally changed the way I thought about engagement and connection. It was phenomenal to be a part of it

and the power that was created by commitment rather than compliance.

The breaking down of barriers and liberating staff to make a difference was brilliant—and

trying to channel the energy that clearly exists inside her system, and turn it from occasional stunt to a cultural norm.

create a “community of change agents,” who operate in what she calls the “zigzag-y” place between old and new power.

These people are not necessarily linked by their positions, nor by their specialties, but by a genuine interest in mobilizing their commun...

Incumbents, whether individuals or longtime institutions, are often ready to roll their eyes at the efforts of bridges

The price of occasional public failure can seem higher than quietly managing decline.

Yet they are essential figures in organizations wish...

As NASA’s experiment with open innovation unfolded, its scientists developed an internal vocabulary to describe the difference between fiercely divided camps:

“problem solvers” and “solution seekers.”

The “problem solvers” were those who resisted change.

Their identity was invested in their own expertise.

“solution seekers”

“Your main responsibility is to seek for solutions and they may come from the lab, from open innovation, or from collaboration, you should not care!

It was this group of scientists that got creative and serious about the wider community. They shifted the boundaries of their worlds to invite people in. For this group, success wasn’t that you personally had the answer, but that you were open to experiment, ready to find answers in unexpected places and from unexpected people.

Any team “taking the turn” needs to build a squad of ...

These are the people, typically drawn from the main body of staff, who will become the experimenters and a...

Investing in this group—and recruiting for it—is key, not just in creating new value for an enterpri...

In old power organizations, all of our resources, training, recognition, and rewards are geared to problem solv...

their bridge role that encouraged people inclined to be solution seekers. They provided a path for those who were prepared to become a new kind of expert, secure and self-confident enough in their abilities t...

They made sure it was the solution seekers, rather than the staff overseeing the initiative, who became the stars of the show.

No new power team would be complete, of course, without those people who create huge value in the community: the super-participants.

These are the most engaged and active people in your wider crowd—AFOLs

One of the dangers of transitioning to new power is in seeing the crowd as a distant, amorphous asset—a blurry mass of occasional opportunity. But crowds cannot be approached

in the same way that organizations often treat such “stakeholders” as civil society or investors: as external actors who must be managed (and sometimes tolerated) alongside the pursuit of the activities that “really” matter. In contrast, super-participants always participate, and they create value by doing so.

A company like Lego has developed such a valuable community of super-participants because it has been prepared to genuinely embrace the world outsi...

the organizations who get this right are those who dive deep.

Obama ran a campaign that was at once highly participatory and highly structured.

Think of this as an exercise in “blending” power,

While both Trump’s campaign and Obama’s in 2008 showed a mastery of how to work up a crowd, there was one crucial difference:

Obama’s approach to participation was highly structured and crafted, where Trump’s was unstructured to the point of anarchy.

There was no reliance on a carefully organi...