New Power

Power no longer moves only through hierarchies or gatekeepers. In New Power, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms explain how the social and technological revolutions of the last two decades transformed authority into participation. Old power behaves like a currency—held by the few, spent when needed, and guarded from outsiders. New power, by contrast, moves like a current—made by the many, open, peer-driven, and contagious. The authors argue that understanding this transition will determine who thrives and who fades in our hyperconnected world.

Old Power: Command and Control

Old power lives in gatekeeping institutions—corporations, governments, legacy media—where formal authority decides what’s possible. Compliance, consumption, and loyalty matter most. Harvey Weinstein’s reign in Hollywood epitomized this logic: control resources, silence dissent, and punish nonconformity. In this system, participation is permissioned and hierarchy protects the center. Old power brings stability but often resists adaptation.

New Power: Participation and Mobilization

New power flows through networks and volunteers, where legitimacy comes from participation. #MeToo, PatientsLikeMe, and Minecraft illustrate how communities create value collectively—by sharing, iterating, and remixing. These are not passive audiences; they are active producers. New power depends on transparent structures, emotional resonance, and rapid scalability. It spreads ideas sideways rather than downward, and succeeds when its architecture invites people to co-own outcomes.

Navigating the Tensions

Between old and new power lies a spectrum of tension: expertise versus experience, secrecy versus transparency, long-term membership versus momentary engagement. You can’t simply pick one. Sometimes an old power structure—like credentialed medicine—is necessary to assure quality; sometimes new power models—like open-source design—deliver unmatched creativity. The art lies in deciding when to command and when to invite.

Blending Power to Lead

Heimans and Timms teach a diagnostic tool—the New Power Compass—to help you locate where an organization sits on the grid of participation and values. Apple functions as a Castle—closed, elite, product-driven. Airbnb, by contrast, thrives through crowd connections and remixable identity. Your goal is not just to recognize your quadrant but to navigate toward greater openness when it benefits the mission. The book’s core invitation: understand both currencies and currents, and learn to convert one into the other.

Essential framing

Old power works best when stability is crucial; new power succeeds when agency and participation drive creativity. The future belongs not to either form alone, but to leaders who can blend them wisely.

Across politics, business, and civic life, Heimans and Timms urge you to treat participation not as a marketing trend but as the defining currency of legitimacy. If the twentieth century rewarded control, the twenty-first rewards collaboration. Understanding how to harness both forces—command and community—is the practical beginning of new power literacy.

In the world of new power, communication is no longer about broadcasting polished messages; it’s about designing ideas that people can own. Heimans and Timms call this the ACE framework: ideas spread when they are Actionable, Connected, and Extensible. This formula explains why some movements or campaigns ignite instantly while others fade despite perfect branding.

Actionable: Give People a Script

Your audience must be able to do something immediately. The Ice Bucket Challenge succeeded not because of emotion alone but because it gave simple, repeatable actions—pour, film, nominate—that invited spectacle and belonging. BuzzFeed built its empire the same way: quizzes, listicles, and memes become shareable acts, turning passive readers into active distributors.

Connected: Spread Through Peer Ties

Ideas travel horizontally through social graphs, not just via influencers. Facebook’s voting experiment proved that social cues drive behavior more than official messages. #GivingTuesday exemplified connection—it let communities create local versions (#GivingBlueDay, #GivingShoesDay), strengthening ownership and authenticity. Effective communication now means designing social validation pathways, not slogans.

Extensible: Invite Remixing

Rigid campaigns fail because people hesitate to alter them. Extensible ideas, by contrast, thrive on variation—the Ice Bucket Challenge went global through playful local twists, from water to rice buckets. #GivingTuesday’s creator deliberately made the brand open so universities, cities, and nonprofits could adapt it. Extensibility is the engine of exponential scale.

The dark side of ACE

ISIS exploited the same logic—actionable calls to join, peer-to-peer recruitment, extensible memes—to mobilize violence. The lesson: ACE can empower or corrupt, depending on values. Countering harmful narratives requires using ACE to amplify credible peers rather than official decrees.

If you want your message, movement, or cause to spread, design it not for perfection but participation. Make action clear, connection easy, and remixing welcome. Whether launching a social campaign or a product community, ACE reminds you that people don’t share things they admire; they share things they can shape.

A crowd doesn’t appear by accident—it is built through deliberate steps. Heimans and Timms outline five methods for constructing communities that move from momentary interest to enduring participation. Successful movements, from GetUp in Australia to LEGO’s fan network, show that logistics and culture matter more than charisma.

1. Find Connected Connectors

Start with small, influential groups who already align with your purpose. GetUp targeted urban progressives; Etsy courted feminist crafters. These early adopters become super-spreaders—people whose networks activate others effortlessly.

2. Build a Participatory Brand

Branding for new power means designing identity that invites co-ownership. Airbnb’s 'belonging' campaign, with remixable logos, let hosts adapt the brand locally. #GivingTuesday chose a neutral heart logo to avoid proprietary control, enabling global replication. You signal openness through brand flexibility, not marketing slogans.

3. Lower Barriers

Participation must feel effortless. Anna Hazare’s 'missed call' protest in India turned phone rings into political support—35 million calls without cost or registration. Frictionless actions create entry points, but as the authors warn, simplicity alone isn’t enough; design pathways upward.

4. Build a Participation Ladder

Like TED’s ecosystem, communities should move members from light engagement to leadership: watch a talk, share it, attend TEDx, host TEDx. Horizontal growth demands vertical development—you must turn followers into contributors.

5. Harness Storms

Moments of public attention—whether crisis or trend—can accelerate growth. You can create a storm (launching live protests), chase one (absorbing a migrating audience like Reddit did with Digg users), or embrace one (using backlash constructively like Girl Scouts did). The key: plan channels for lasting engagement once the storm passes.

Core takeaway

Movements that last combine emotional sparks with structural scaffolding. Viral moments are accelerants; design and community management are the sustenance.

If you want to build participation, think like an architect, not just an activist. Recruit connectors, craft open brands, reduce friction, design ladders, and prepare for waves. Done well, you don’t just gather a crowd—you cultivate a durable network of belonging.

Many legacy institutions try to embrace participation and stumble. Heimans and Timms analyze why, showing how organizations can transform old power structures without losing coherence. The central question becomes: how do you turn bureaucracy into partnership?

Deciding to Open Up

Before inviting the crowd, ask four questions: Is participation strategically useful? Do people trust you (legitimacy)? Can you afford to relinquish control? Are you prepared for sustained commitment? The Boaty McBoatFace saga is the cautionary tale: officials opened a naming contest, ignored results, and lost credibility. Participation without follow-through breeds cynicism.

Learning from LEGO

LEGO succeeded because it built engagement patiently. By nurturing Adult Fans of LEGO through ambassador networks and crowdsourced product ideas, the company turned enthusiasts into collaborators. Leadership featured four roles—the shapeshifter (legitimizing change), the bridge (connecting old systems to new), the solution seeker (testing ideas), and the guardian (filtering superficial disruptors). These roles model how executives can orchestrate openness responsibly.

Blending Old and New Power

Hybrid success stories—TED, Local Motors, NRA—demonstrate blending mastery: open participation, closed cores. TED democratized content through online talks and TEDx while preserving brand standards. Local Motors lets its crowd design prototypes within defined constraints to maintain quality. The NRA integrates grassroots energy with institutional lobbying, showing the strategic potency of sustained dualism.

Leadership challenge

Turning institutions requires humility—leaders must give up unilateral control and redistribute creative authority while ensuring rigour and safety. Blending, not rebellion, is the craft of durable transformation.

If you manage a company, school, or NGO, the lesson is clear: openness isn’t a stunt. It’s a structure. Build credibility first, then open channels that let communities contribute meaningfully. Participation must be designed as partnership rather than marketing.

When people co-create rather than consume, both emotional and economic value multiplies. Heimans and Timms label this the participation premium: the uplift produced when engagement deepens belonging and ownership. Companies and movements that harness it—Star Citizen, Xiaomi, BrewDog—show that participation is not charity; it’s a performance multiplier.

Creating the Premium

Three ingredients drive the effect: a real stake, visible recognition, and feedback loops. When Star Citizen let backers test alpha versions and shape mechanics, people felt ownership even before release. Xiaomi drew on the 'IKEA effect'—people value what they help build. BrewDog turned beer drinkers into investors and recipe collaborators through “Equity for Punks,” binding financial and emotional loyalty.

Designing for Reciprocity

Participation must yield visible returns. Local Motors pays design royalties; LEGO celebrates contributors through public recognition and product adoption. Reciprocity maintains energy and fairness. Without feedback or transparency, communities shift from advocates to critics (the Star Citizen refund demands prove this volatility).

Risks of Participation

Distributed ownership brings governance challenges—conflicting expectations, entitlement, or lack of accountability. Crowdfunding can favor charismatic projects while neglecting critical infrastructure. The authors stress balance: invite input, but curate delivery. Participation without structure becomes chaos; structure without openness breeds boredom.

Formula for shared value

(Something in Return + Higher Purpose) × Participation = Amplified Passion and Productivity.

If you want to unlock the premium, design reciprocity loops, give credit openly, and convert contributors into partners. New power transforms customers into co-creators—the organizations that master this shift will build loyalty far deeper than traditional marketing ever achieved.

Leadership today requires fluency in participation. Heimans and Timms map four archetypes using the New Power Compass—Crowd Leader, Cheerleader, Co-opter, and Castle—and show how these styles shape political and cultural outcomes. Alongside personal models, they extend the idea into civic design—a vision of a “full-stack society” where citizens co-own institutions.

Leadership Archetypes

Crowd Leaders (Obama 2008, Pope Francis) build platforms for participation and empower followers. Cheerleaders speak participatory language but keep control (Obama’s post-election phase). Co-opters use crowd energy for personal gain (Mark Zuckerberg or platform strongmen like Donald Trump). Castles stay hierarchical. Understanding which archetype you inhabit lets you steer evolution rather than accident.

Three Capabilities for Crowd Leadership

Signaling—gestures that dignify participation (Pope Francis’s simplicity). Structuring—systems that grant agency (Obama’s organizing manual, NASA’s opt-in labs). Shaping—norm-setting beyond your tenure (Francis redefining 'mercy' culture). Together these build distributed leadership that lasts beyond campaigns.

Work and the Founder Feeling

The same principles apply inside organizations. Workers crave autonomy, visible impact, and ownership—the 'founder feeling.' Buurtzorg’s nurse-led model in the Netherlands proves it: small self-managed teams outperform large bureaucracies. LinkedIn’s 'tours of duty' and Care.com’s portable benefits adapt this ethos for security and development. New power at work means balancing agency with protection.

A Full-Stack Civic Vision

In society, the full-stack model unites front-end participation with back-end institutions. De Correspondent’s reader-driven journalism, Taiwan’s g0v movement under Audrey Tang, and participatory budgeting show how citizens can co-design media, policy, and city budgets. Health platforms like PatientsLikeMe likewise turn personal data into shared problem-solving. True democracy now means designing civic technology and culture for continuous participation.

Final reflection

New power isn’t utopian or automatic—it depends on ethics, design, and shared governance. Institutions that open responsibly and leaders who empower authentically can build societies where people feel ownership instead of alienation.

Whether guiding teams, governments, or movements, the essence of new power leadership lies in creating systems that outlast personality. Replace control with collaboration, distribute agency thoughtfully, and build norms that sustain participation across the stack of social life.