Illuminate – by Nancy Duarte & Patti Sanchez

Illuminate is a cool, well-structured, well-designed book about creating change. The book is centered around the ‘Innovation Life-Cycle’ and the ‘Venture Scape’. It takes us through the story of change through the stages: Dream, Leap, Fight, Climb, Arrive and Re-Dream. At each stage, you as the ‘Torch Bearer’ and the leader need to light the way for your travelers, using speeches, stories, ceremonies, and symbols.

‘Ignite Change through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols’

Illuminate (dot point) Summary

Nancy Duarte

Leaders see the future

• Ability to anticipate what’s ahead, as if the future is illuminated for her in a way that others can’t see. The dream of a new future turns into the fire in my belly and I carry the idea forward like a torch, lighting the path so others can thrive’
• Dramatic periods of reinvention. Constant reinvention
• Taught her a new level of empathetic storytelling skills, that when applied to our own situation, helped us cope with the brutal realities of systemic change

Patti Sanchez

• Though Nancy is a seer of the future, Patty’s gift is to see things from another person’s perspective
• She has learned the hard way that coming up with ideas is easy and getting others to embrace them is not
• Because a change of any kind is frightening to most people, leaders have to narrate the journey from here to there and back again with clarity and conviction and most of the empathy

‘The future is a formless void

A blank space waiting to be filled.

And then a torchbearer envisions a new possibility

That vision is your dream, your calling

And it burns like a fire in your belly

But you can’t create the future alone

You need travelers to come alon

Some say a torchbearer is a burden

Some say it’s a blessing

Either way, those who light the path

Are the ones who change the world

Chapter 1: Leaders move others forward

• Leaders role, your role, is to light the way for your team through empathetic communications – to be a torchbearer
• Leaders don’t just anticipate the future, though, you also shape and bring it forth
• The smartphone in your hand, the artisanal coffee in your cup, and the floor covering your feet exist because of a fearless creator hatched an idea and communicated an inspiring vision
• As you anticipate the future, start, grow mature, (S curve), re-dream, start, grow mature
• Most people don’t want things to be disrupted
• Most would rather stick with the task at hand and get through their own pile of work, than jump into something new
• They know change is hard and risky!
• In order to guide your travelers toward that future, you have to anticipate their reactions by imagining each step along the path as they might experience it

Map the stages of your venture

Dream, leap, fight, climb, arrive, redream

• Transformation follows a story structure
• Along the way the hero is tested, challenged and ultimately changed returning home weary but wiser
• Torchbearers spring travelers into action at critical moments and heighten their excitement about the venture ahead
• You can see that the middle stages, Fight and Climb are the struggle
• Once you successfully come to the end of one stage of the venture, use speeches, stories and ceremonies to create galvanizing moments again to orient them to their spot on their journey

When Elven Princess lights Frodo’s path

• This task was appointed to you, and if you do not find a way, no one will
• Then I know what I must do. It’s just… I’m afraid to do it’
• She replies, “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
• Elven Princess has a gift-giving ceremony, gives Frodo a crystal phial filled with light saying “it will shine brighter when the night is about you. May it light you in dark places”
• The light you carry is expressed through speeches, stories, ceremonies, symbols culled from your own experience as a well-seasoned traveler

Chapter 2 – Listen empathetically to light the path

• Every venture begins with a leader’s vision
• Whether trying to get your team on board, asking investors to fund you, convincing customers to buy your product etc… Your success depends on others support

Empathy creates solidarity

• Empathizing brings people closer together and makes them feel connected
• That connection makes people more willing to help and cooperate with one another
• People who care about others demonstrate higher motivation, productivity, and creativity, “emotional intelligence” is a core skill

Imagine yourself in your traveler’s place

• Leaders often assume that the value of their ideas is self-evident, so they are surprised when they encounter resistance

Think

• Imagine their thoughts moving from present to the future
• What will challenge them

Feel

• Imagine all the emotions your dream might evoke in your travelers
• How do they feel about the change?
• How will the challenges affect their moods and motivation?

Do

• Imagine their potential actions by walking through their actions your vision will require of them

Chapter 3 – Torchbearers toolkit

• Once you have visioned your dream, you need to motivate others to realize this dream. Understand your travelers and use the right communication tools
• People will be like golem and Smeagol
• Your travelers will experience similar internal counter-arguments. Each person will weigh the pros and cons of the new endeavor in his or her mind, assessing whether the sacrifice is worth the reward

1. Deliver speeches

• You have the opportunity to explain ideas and directly address the resistance to change
• Speeches motivate forward of what could be, make the future more alluring than the present, minimize gap of what could be and what is
• The goal is to impart from the current reality and envision a new future
• For important persuasive information
• Speeches call your audience to action
• You are asking them to leave their comfort zones of reality and move closer to the future you envision

2. Tell stories

• Observing a protagonist try, fail, and then overcome stirs potent feelings that resonate on a deep psychological level

Beginning – what is

1. Paint a realistic picture of the current world and what’s at stake if your travelers stay there and do nothing

Example page 50 Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF

Middle – what could be

1. Introduce a new potential future into the present reality. Contrast the gap between what is and what could be so they could get the transformation needed

End – new bliss

1. The balance is resolved and speech ends with everyone understanding the reward they’ll gain by creating a better future
2. Hold ceremonies

• Fulfill a need to express emotion collectively
• Helps travelers envision new behavior

4. Use symbols

• Are ordinary artifacts that take on meaning as they were a part of the speech, story or ceremony
• When you integrate those symbols with your communication you show appreciation for the sentiments they express by amplifying them and rallying everyone around them‘

Venture Case Study – Starbucks Howard Schultz

• Soul of the brand at risk in 2008 in pursuit of growth
• Got all executives in a room and listened to what they say empathetic listening
• Got everyone in a meeting room playing Beetles, with visual images dream ceremony, auditory symbols
• He closes 7100 stores for 3.5 hours at cost of 6 mil profit to train all staff
• Every staff put a sign on the door autographed by baristas “if your coffee isn’t perfect, let us know and well make it right” leap ceremony/pledge commitment

Chapter 4 – dream

• Once you can picture your dream as a reality, you can communicate it to others which is the vital first step in your venture.
• Interface story page 106 sustainable carpet

Chapter 5 – Leap

• Plunging into the unknown doesn’t faze you because yu historically been successful swimming in murky waters.
• Some of your travelers are adventurous too and are ready to dive in without trepidation
• Warn with “ignore the reward” stories
• Emphasize what is at risk, raising the stakes  by clarifying the cost of doing nothing
• Create a vivid impression of what will be lost and who will feel it most acutely

Leap ceremonies

• When Musk founded Tesla his goal was to convert fossil fuel dependent auto industry to electric cars
• Once Musk realized that other manufacturers were using the patents as an excuse to avoid committing to electric cars, he released all his patents for any car maker
• Tesla replaced on patents on the wall with a picture of a game called zero wings, which says “All our patent belongs to you”

Chapter 6 – Fight

• Summon peoples courage by portraying the enemy as beatable and build travelers up for the fight ahead
• Motivate with battle speeches
• Motivate with underdog
• Motivate to overcome the enemy

Fight case study – Martin Luther King

Chapter 7 Climb

Chapter 8 – Arrive

Chapter 9 – redream

• Leaders are naturally restless. Just as your arrival seems imminent and your vision will become a reality, a new dream begins to stir inside you
• Each venture you take is part of a larger story
• “You cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward”

Apple case study – redream

Conclusion – confessions of a torchbearer Nancy Duarte

• When you choose to lead your ability to see the way and illuminate if for others sets you apart
• Usually, its more like dream, leap fight, climb fight, climb recommit, climb, fight arrive
• Communication toolkit minimize the uncertainty of the fog of war