New Power ─ How Movements Build, Businesses Thrive, and Ideas Catch Fire in Our Hyperconnected World

From two visionary thinkers and practitioners comes a big idea about how power works differently in our hyperconnected age.

Why do some leap ahead while others fall behind in today's chaotic, connected world? In New Power, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms confront the biggest stories of our age--the rise of mega-platforms like Facebook and Uber; the out-of-nowhere victories of Presidents Obama and Trump; the unexpected emergence of movements like #BlackLivesMatter--and reveal what's really behind them: the rise of "new power."

For most of human history, the rules of power were clear. To get ahead or get things done, you mastered "old power": closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. Once gained, old power is jealously guarded, and the powerful spend it carefully, like currency. Our military, schools, hospitals, and governments run on old power. But ubiquitous connectivity 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, and peer-driven. Like water or electricity, it is most forceful when it surges. The challenge with new power is not to hoard it but to channel it.

In New Power, Heimans and Timms showcase unlikely leaders using new power techniques, like Pope Francis and Lady Gaga, and look to the cultural phenomena of our time, from the Ice Bucket Challenge to Reddit to Airbnb, uncovering the new power forces that made them huge. They point to old power institutions like Lego, NASA, and the NRA that have figured out how to blend old and new power to supercharge their work. The authors draw on their own experience, too, offering us the new power tools we need to successfully spread an idea, lead a movement, build a career, or transform an organization today. And they explore the dark side of the changes we are living through: the way ISIS has co-opted new power to monstrous ends and the rise of the alt-right's "intensity machine."

New Power illuminates dramatic shifts happening in business, politics, and our everyday lives, and helps us all to master the new art of power.

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 2014 he was named the NonProfit Times Influencer of the Year and in 2015, one of Crain's New York Business 40 Under 40.