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Book summary: 'ILLUMINATE' by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches

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Succinct and to the point about the book “Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols.”

Today I review one remarkable book, which I read with incredible pleasure. I hasten to share with you succinctly key takeaways and insights after reading. And I urge you to read this book, as well, or at least add to your waitlist.

✍️
The people who are enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
– Steve Jobs

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 potential not only to anticipate the future and invent creative initiatives, but to also inspire those around you to support and execute your vision.

⁉️ Think about it
Is every manager a leader, and is it necessary to be a manager to be a leader

It is pretty rare that I read a book and do not want it to end. Interesting cases, stories, and extraordinary density of helpful information are so attractive that it is impossible to imagine a better book. I mean the book “Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols” by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches.

This book is about people, about relationships between people in the company, about leaders. About real leaders who are brave and reliable people. About leaders who can lead others to change the company or department for the better.

A leader is not who is a master of skillfully delegating EVERYTHING. A leader doesn’t keep up appearances, sweeping problems under the carpet. A leader doesn’t pretend ignorance.

Leaders See the Future

A pool of standing water eventually becomes foul rot unless you stir it up and let oxygen back in.

A leader must be great at stirring the water to avoid rot. A leader is great at communicating empрaticaly.

Leaders are not self-appointed. A bird may be known by its song. The leader is respected. The leader shares the victory with all participants. The leader admits defeat.

The book on transformation in the company

When taking risks you have to persuade others to come along. Some of your more adventure travelers will jump in, and others will create roadblocks to slow things down because they prefer things to stay the way they are; they’d rather stick with what they know than jump into something new.

Great leaders visualize the journey through the eyes of others.

People can squash an idea with a strong business case because it threatens to disrupt the world. Knowing where to go is important, but explaining why and how to get there is even more important. Leaders have to narrate the journey from here to there and back again with clarity and conviction, and, most of all, empathy. Leaders illuminate the path for travelers. Torchbearers communicate in a way that changes fear and inspires hope.

Chapter 1: Leaders Move Others Forward

Leaders anticipate the future. They stand at the edge of the known world, patrolling the border between “now” and “next” to spot trends. They help others see the future, too, guiding people through the unexpected and inspiring them to long for a better reality. The leader’s role is to light the way for the team through empathetic communications — to be a torchbearer. Making something out of nothing is the mark of the greatest leaders.

💡 A healthy organization should be in constant motion.

The most common symbol in business for moving from a current state to a future state is the S-curve. The shape of the curve plots the life cycle of a business as it starts, grows and matures.

Excerpt from Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches.
Excerpt from Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches.

In order to lead people through the venture, you need to understand the stages you and your travelers will encounter. The book’s authors have identified the five stages that every venture contains: Dream, Leap, Fight, Climb, and Arrive. This book will help you to understand these stages.

Excerpt from Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches.
Excerpt from Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches.

Controlling, framing and conveying the narrative of your venture is the torchbearer’s primary role. To motivate travelers, you’ll need a torchbearer’s communication toolkit. You will deliver speeches, tell stories, hold ceremonies, and use symbols to ease transitions and keep up spirits.

Chapter 2: Listen

Listen Emphatically to light the Path.

Every venture begins with a leader’s vision. The leader may see the path ahead with clarity, but the outcome of the venture is not really up to him and her.

Your idea is the spark, but you need others to carry the fire on the long trek ahead. The success will depend on other’s support. Your internal team on board, investors, customers are the ones who can make your dream a reality, but only if it becomes their dream, too.

☝️ Never devalue the contribution of your colleagues (especially when it comes to a subordinate team).

☝️ Justice, honesty, and solidarity – if you are not ready to lead with these characteristics, be brave to escape, not to harm.

💡 Empathy Creates Solidarity

When a toddler sees her mother laugh, she instinctively starts to giggle in unison so they share the fun together. When employees feel that their leaders care about them, they feel more optimistic about the future and are more committed to the organization. Leaders create conditions that give everyone a voice in the venture.

💡 Torchbearers Start by Listening

Leaders who want to drive significant changes must listen to their travelers, make them feel a part of the process, and communicate emphatically if they want their venture to succeed.

✅ Read on to learn how a leader at IBM listened well, and how a leader at Market Basket did not.

Case Study: IBM

Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/
Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/

To prepare for a big shift, torchbearers do a lot of asking and listening before they start telling and acting. When you start by listening emphatically, you’ll uncover the root causes of problems and build a coalition of support to help you solve them.

All of the listening that Gerstner did informed his strategy-making process, helping his executive team build plans to make IBM relevant, competitive, and profitable again. It led to an even larger and longer-lasting shift in IBM’s culture, moving it from an inwardly focused bureaucracy to a market-driven innovator.

ℹ️
The board hired Louis Gerstner Jr. — the first CEO to come from outside IBM’s ranks.

Case Study: Market Basket

Source: https://arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/
Source: https://arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/

Market Basket launched a grassroots venture to win back a beloved CEO. Can you imagine being ousted as CEO by your board — which is led by your cousins, who own 50.5 percent of the company — and then being reinstated because employees refused to work for the new leadership and customers boycotted your products? That’s just what happened to Market Basket’s president, Arthur T. Demoulas.

Chapter 3: The torchbearer’s Toolkit

💡 Move People Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

Once you’ve envisioned your dream and imagined it as reality, you’ve got to motivate others to help you realize the dream. Whether they sign on or not is determined by how well you communicate. Use the right communication tools to express your vision, communicate progress, and inspire them to keep going.

1️⃣ Deliver Speeches
Persuade with Speeches
2️⃣ Tell Stories
Engage with Stories
3️⃣ Hold Ceremonies
Immerse with Ceremonies
4️⃣ Use Symbols
Empower with Symbols
Infographics are based on materials from Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches.
Infographics are based on materials from Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches.

Case Study: Starbucks

Source: https://thumbor.forbes.com/
Source: https://thumbor.forbes.com/

Some of the most enduring companies have transformed themselves again and again to stay relevant in the future, and Starbucks is no exception. One of the toughest transition for Starbucks occurred in the early 2000s, requiring its leader to undertake an epic venture to return the brand to greatness.

Starbucks had been driving rapid expansion globally but in the process the company had lost some of its magic customers. In an eighteen-month period, CEO Howard Schultz and his leadership team undertook a venture to reframe the company’s mission, shift employee mind-sets, and reinvigorate the customer experience to bring Starbucks back to its roots.

Chapter 4: Dream

💡 Moment of Inspiration

In the initial stage of your venture, your travelers need to understand your vision and find inspiration in the journey ahead.

  1. Start by empathizing with your travelers to show that you understand the benefits and disadvantages that their world today provides them.

  2. Then help them visualize the end state by describing your dream in alluring detail and what they stand to gain in it.

  3. Finally, communicate the whole path from present to future, clearly articulating the journey from where you’ve been to where you are now, and where you’re headed in the long run.

To create moments of inspiration for your travelers at the start of your venture, use these tools of speeches, stories, ceremonies, and symbols to kick off the dream with fanfare. Just as the new year is greeted with revelry, a ship’s maiden voyage is christened with champagne, and a representative rings a bell when a company goes public on the stock exchange, you should clearly demarcate the moment your dream launches to generate enthusiasm.

Case Study: Interface

Source: https://www.interface.com/
Source: https://www.interface.com/

Environmental concerns launched the carpet provider Interface on a multiyear venture to reimagine the way it designed, manufactured, and distributed its products. Inspired by the radical vision of founder Ray C. Anderson, employees, suppliers, and customers transformed the company and its industry and set a new standard for corporate responsibility.

Chapter 5: Leap

💡 Moment of decision

The second stage in the venture requires your travelers to commit to change. You need them to agree to take on new responsibilities or change behaviors so together you can see dream through to the end.

Leap stage is a time to take action. This moment of decision is critical time in your journey because you’re asking travelers to take a leap of faith. To them, your dream is still ethereal — an early-stage promise that’s tantalizing yet delicate, so fresh and untested that it could evaporate into thin air at any minute. But in this moment, your travelers have already begun to will the dream into existence simply by believing in themselves and in you. Their choice to move forward gave your fragile dream a scaffolding of steel that will serve it well in the next stage. And by committing yourself to helping them succeed, you have cemented their desire to journey forward with you.

Case Study: Rackspace

Source: https://www.texasmonthly.com
Source: https://www.texasmonthly.com

After a period of rapid expansion, Rackspace outgrew its San Antonio headquarters. Co-founder and chairman Graham Weston had the idea to transform a defunct mall into the company’s new home, but employees resisted jumping on. By listening to the concerns of Rackers, Weston engaged employees in the venture and reimagined the company’s role in the community.

Chapter 6: Fight

💡 Moment of Bravery

When a big fight looms, your travelers need to be emboldened by their strength in numbers. In this third stage, you must summon people’s courage by portraying the enemy as beatable and build travelers up for the fight ahead.

Instilling bravery communally helps people feel that they are stronger together than alone. Preparing travelers for the fight could be as simple as gathering the people to acknowledge that difficulties may lure ahead — which they probably already foresee — and offering reasons to believe that a better future will come to pass. But no sooner do your travelers commit than they’re hit with unexpected battles that knock even your most valiant trekkers onto their butts. Repeat moments of bravery over and over so travelers have the energy to combat the challenges ahead that hold you back.

Case Study: Civil Rights

Source: https://remezcla.com/
Source: https://remezcla.com/

In 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a civil rights venture in Chicago that built on tactics he had used successfully in previous campaigns. He stirred the anger of city leaders and suburban residents by confronting the conditions that allowed slums to flourish. But the ultimately won the battle for fair housing when the U.S. government passed a law banning housing discrimination.

Chapter 7: Climb

💡 Moment of Endurance

The journey is bigger and longer than anticipated and enthusiasm is waning. In this fourth stage, your travelers start to lose sight of why they started this journey at all and need help strengthening their resolve to finish.

In this stage, you and your travelers have much to do because huge milestones still lie ahead. This is a critical juncture in your narrative. People can’t endure for long stints without tome to regroup and refresh. If they don’t recommit, your dream won’t be realized. Travelers need the energy and motivation to keep pressing forward and be warned of the harm of staying put or losing their way.

Case Study: charity: water

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/

When charity: water founder Scott Harrison felt called to bring clean water to the world, his friends were reluctant to support him. To them, charities didn’t use their funds effectively. Harrison embarked on a venture to reinvent how charities raise funds, pledging to communicate transparently how charity: water’s funds would be spent and promising donors that all their money would go to the cause of bringing clean water to those who have none.

Chapter 8: Arrive

💡 Moment of Reflection

You and your team have met a momentous milestone or crossed the finish line. In this fifth stage, it’s time to declare wins, big or small. Recognize the hard work of your travelers and create opportunities for them to bask in their accomplishments.

You’re arrived. This moment should amplify the emotions of your travelers. By recounting the brave actions of your troops, you honor their achievements and celebrate the camaraderie and determination forged during the difficult days. Looking back also teaches important lessons to the travelers who may lead your next expedition. The next generation of adventures will learn from your reflections on the details and triumphs and imagine how they might respond when faced with a similar venture.

Case Study: Chick-fil-A

Source: www.localogy.com

Source: www.localogy.com

Moving the Chick-fil-A culture from a mind-set that valued steady execution to one that celebrated risk taking required significant investment and support. To launch its innovation venture, CEO Dan Cathy plucked an executive out of his day-to-day job to focus solely on changing mind-sets, engaging employees in problem solving, and celebrating risky projects.

Chapter 9: (re)Dream

💡 Moment of Disruption

Leaders are naturally restless. Just as your arrival seems imminent and your vision will become reality, a new dream begins to stir inside you.

Excerpt from Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches.
Excerpt from Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols by Nancy Duarte and Patt Sanches.

Case Study: Apple

Source: https://cdn.cultofmac.com/
Source: https://cdn.cultofmac.com/

Launching a new era requires breaking with the past. When new leaders are charged with creating a new era, the first task may be to stabilize the organization before you have the space to create a new dream.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he knew the company’s success relied on developers migrating to a new operating system, OS X. Yet the new OS required developers to make incredible sacrifices. Throughout the course of his venture Jobs communicated tirelessly to remove skepticism, and developers slowly began adopting OS X. As a new dream emerged, Jobs brought an end to the old OS era and ushered in the era of the Digital Hub.

Conclusion

When you choose to lead, your ability to see the way and illuminate it for others sets you apart. Torchbearers are dreamers, pioneers, and scouts who are energized to light the path for travelers.

☝️ So, when you discover a new ember, let there be light.

Learn More

Reading Challenge 2020. Look inside my ‘Book bag’

Illuminate: Executive Summary by authors

Book “Illuminate” on Amazon


Thank you!

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