Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols


Illuminate: Ignite change through speeches, stories, ceremonies, and symbols by Nancy Duarte & Pantti Sanchez

Publisher: Portfolio Penguin
Year: 2016
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 323
Genres: Business Communication 



Book Review

“Illuminate” is a book written by Nancy Duarte and Panti Sanchez. This is a book about the ways of leaders going to achieve their dreams through leading people with persuasive speeches. This book contains case study about influential person and organization in achieving a goal, process of delivering powerful speeches, and summary of the chapter in process form.



Chapter One Leader move others forward
This chapter describes visionary leader will anticipate his future and seek to make his dream happens even though need to face a lot of pressure and obstacles. As the leader, you must have your own torchbearer’s toolkit. You have to deliver speeches, tell stories, and hold ceremonies by using symbols to make people clear about your goal and dream. In a team, the most important are, sharing ideas with people by sharing your vision so that they have the clear direction to move forwards. Hence, the ways of delivering speeches sharing life experiences, and using symbols are playing an important role in forming tacit understanding between each other. 


Chapter Two Listen Empathetically to Light the Path
This chapter describes listen your traveler's opinions can form mutual support between each other. This is because you can well understand your team members’ behavior and emotion and then create solidarity between you and your members. Think, feel and do are the main elements should be considered by the leaders to gain trust and form relationship with members.


Chapter Three: The Torchbearer’s Toolkit 
This chapter describes  every leaders must have their own communication tool to express themselves to let your team members understand your future goal and vision in order to keep going. Here is the mind-set that you need to form while expressing your idea: 

Three Act Persuasive Speech Structure: 
  • Beginning: What is?
  • Middle: What could be? 
  • End: New Bliss
Three Act Stories Structure: 
  • Beginning 
  • Middle 
  • End
Ceremonies: Three-Act Rites of Passage Structure 
  • Beginning: Separation
  • Middle: Transition
  • End: Reincorporation 
Symbols: 
  • Visual: What you see? 
  • Auditory: What you hear? 
  • Spatial: Where you are? 
  • Physical: What you do? 


Chapter Four: Dream Moment of Inspiration
In this chapter, the writers mention about you have to convince people to understand your vision by having a dream. To convince people to understand your goals, you should form your own:
  1. Dream speeches
  2. Dream stories
  3. Dream ceremonies
  4. Dream symbols


If you have powerful communication toolkit, you can make your team become motivated, passion, and faith in achieving the vision.


Chapter Five: Leap Moment of Decision
In this chapter, the writers mention about the torchbearer (leader) need to take courage to change so that the dream will come true. To encourage people to take a risk with leader, you have to persuade and motivate your members with your own communication toolkit. Remember, when they committed or resistant, use different ways of communication to keep them going as well. 


Chapter Six: Fight Moment of Bravery
In this chapter, the writers will explain about using speeches, stories, and symbols to summon people to overcome enemies. This is because it can remind your team members what they are going to achieve and win to build up the vision that promised before.


Chapter Seven: Climb Moment of Endurance
In the journey, there will be a lot of struggle, pains, disappointed, and failure that people will going to face. It is inevitable that certain of them will give up and feel lose about their ways. To make them keep motivated and fight for the dream, the leader must use speeches, stories, ceremonies, and symbols to reinvigorate their mind to keep forward. In this chapter, the writers mention about Scott Harrison, CEO of the non-profit charity about water, summon people to support the mission of bringing quality water to everyone in the one.


Chapter Eight: Arrive Moment of Reflection
In this chapter, every mission completed by team members should be recognized by the leader so that their hard works are feel appreciated even though the result is not victorious. In this chapter, the writers mention about the ways of a founder in an organization express their sincere and grateful toward employees in order to recognize their hard works and efforts.


Chapter Nine: (re) Dream Moment of Disruption
For organization longevity, leader need to (re) dream their vision and mission that going to achieve to make team members always keep forward.

My thoughts:

In my opinion, I like this book in structuring their explanation in small title, table, process, summary, and case study to let reader easy to understand how the person or company fight for their dreams. For example, Starbucks Venture Scape Summary, the writers summarize all of the Starbucks stories in dream, leap, fight, climb, arrive, and (re) Dream to help reader revise quickly about the company business expansion process. Besides that, picture about company environment, founder of an organization, and current issues provided by writers also make readers relate the issues to the stories effectively.


Recommendation

I think this book is suitable for anyone in interested in exploring new business ideas, improve presentation skills, communication skills, and improve the English language. Meanwhile, it can also become motivational books series collection for readers to keep moving forward to achieve short and long term goal as well!


If you are interested in this book, you can check this link:
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