New power and old power

At this year’s TedxAmsterdam event, the first speaker was Jeremy Heimans. A young man that actually inspired the latest edition’s theme; New Power. “The concept of new power has been named by CNN as one of 10 ideas to change the world. Originally laid out as the Big Idea in Harvard Business Review and subsequent TED talk, new power offers a frame to understand the distributed and participatory models that are rising in business, life and society. It contrasts new power with the values and models of the “old power” world – based on the top-down, traditional and command-mindset – and suggests that the battle and the balancing between old and new power will be a defining feature of our lives in the coming years. New power lays out a practical framework for understanding how power is shifting: who has it, how it is shared, and where it is heading.”

Currency versus current

Think about old power as currency; the more you had of it, the more power you have. Juxtaposed is new power which is not something that you can acquire or hold, it’s like a current – it flows and it is made by many. The new models are made to amass a lot of people, it uses the power of participation. Which means it is no way solely a positive power; New power makes the reach of any ideology greater.

About Jeremy

“Jeremy Heimans is co-founder and CEO of Purpose, a home for building 21st century movements and crowd-based social and economic models to tackle the world’s biggest problems. In 2005, he co-founded GetUp, an Australian political organisation and internationally recognised social movement phenomenon that today has more members than all of Australia’s political parties combined. And in 2007, Jeremy was a co-founder of Avaaz, the world’s largest online citizens’ movement, now with more than 40 million members.”

Want to see more TedxAmsterdam Talks? Here’s the full playlist.