Henry Timms - New Power

The examples and anecdotes leap off the page, in a cant-put-down guidebook on how to change the world successfully, and how to fail dismally.

The Hon. Tony Burke MP

The Australian Marriage Equality Campaign was a case study for what Jeremy and Henry describe in this engaging and important book. In the words of New Power, the campaign was Actionable, Connected and Extensible. The central campaign gave small groups and larger communities the tools to share stories, make calls, activate social media and more to build a mass movement in support of change. In the end the politicians, even most who were opposed, had no choice but to vote overwhelmingly for equality.

Bruce Meagher, Director of Corporate Affairs at Foxtel

Anyone aspiring to political, business or community leadership should read this book... It will frighten some, inspire many and expose the laggards.

Adam Kilgour, Managing Director Diplomacy Pty Ltd

New Power is a serious attempt to make sense of the political revolutions disrupting every corner of the world, and every facet of our lives. If you want a shot at understanding these changes, you need to read this book.

Lachlan Harris, former Senior Press Secretary to the Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd MP

A wonderfully incisive contribution that not only explains how the dynamics of power are changing, but also provides the toolsand the confidenceto harness those changes to spread our ideas and make a better world.

Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever

New Power is addressing a vital issue for our times: how to make the voices and choices of all, not just a few, count for something. Plaudits to Heimans and Timms for their determination to help shape the future, not just complain about it.

David Miliband, CEO of the International Rescue Committee

New Power is both a practical guide and a much needed dose of optimism, helping us understand that the future is ours for the making. A must-read for todays leaders in any field.

Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and recipient of MacArthur Genius Award

Finally, a book that looks at how ideas travel online that doesnt deal in hype or resort to panic.

Robert Levine, author ofFree Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business

First published 2018 in the United States by Doubleday, a division of
Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
This edition published 2018 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000

Copyright 2018 by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms

The moral right of the authors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Book design by Michael Collica
Author photos by Michael Creagh
Printed and bound in Australia by McPhersons Printing Group

The author and the publisher have made every effort to contact copyright holders for material used in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked should contact the publisher.

To Brock

To Colleen, Callie, and Josiah

Power, as philosopher Bertrand Russell puts it, is the

That ability is now in all of our hands. Today, we have the capacity to make films, friends, or money; to spread hope or spread our ideas; to build community or build up movements; to spread misinformation or propagate violenceall on a vastly greater scale and with greater potential impact than we did even a few years ago.

Yes, this is because technology has changed. But the deeper truth is that we are changing. Our behaviors and expectations are changing. And those who have figured out how to channel all this energy and appetite are producing Russells intended effects in new and extraordinarily impactful ways.

Think of the hoodie-clad barons who sit atop online platforms a billion users strong, tweaking our daily habits, emotions, and opinions. The political neophytes who have raised passionate crowds and won stunning victories. The everyday people and organizations who are leaping ahead in this chaotic, hyperconnected worldwhile others fall back.

This book is about how to navigate and thrive in a world defined by the battle and balancing of two big forces. We call them old power and new power.

Old power works like a currency. It is held by few. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful have a substantial store of it to spend. It is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. It downloads, and it captures.

New power operates differently, like a current. It is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It uploads, and it distributes. Like water or electricity, its most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it but to channel it.

To start to see how old and new power work, here are three very different stories.

Award seasons after award season, movie producer Harvey Weinstein ruled over Hollywood like a god.

an honorary Commander of the British Empire.

Weinstein hoarded his power and spent it like currency to maintain his vaunted position: he could make or break a star, he had huge personal capacity to green-light a project or sink it. He shaped the fortunes of an entire industryand in turn that industry protected him even as he carried out a decades-long spree of alleged sexual harassment and assault. through developing a cozy mutually beneficial relationship based on the favors and access he could grant. He even won the 2017 Los Angeles Press Club Truth Teller award.

He buffeted himself with an army of lawyers, relying on punishing non-disclosure agreements for those who worked with him and, when necessary, paying off accusers. firmsstaffed with former spiesto dig for information on women and journalists with allegations against him. The women he preyed upon mostly kept quiet anyway, out of the very real fear of career consequences, while the men who might have stepped up stood by and did nothing, unwilling to spend their own power on a fight.

If Harvey Weinstein, and the closed and hierarchical system that held him up, tell a familiar story about old power, then Weinsteins fall, and especially what happened next, tells us a lot about how new power works, and why it matters.

In the days after news stories broke about Weinstein and his accusers, the actress Alyssa Milano shared the hashtag #MeToo to encourage women to tell their stories of sexual harassment and assault on Twitter. Terri Conn paid attention. In her twenties, as an emerging actress with a role on a soap opera, Conn had been approached by director James Toback to meet in Central Park to talk about a part. , he assaulted her.