Changemaker Playbook: The New Physics of Leadership in a World of Explosive Change

by Henry F. De Sio Jr.

Our one-leader-at-a-time past has given way to a present reality where everyone has the potential to lead in every aspect of life. We all have at our fingertips the tools of change that were once available to just a few - and The shift from one-leader-at-a-time to everyone-leading-in-every-moment has created a changemaker effect on society. Change is no longer linear and faster, it's explosive and omnidirectional.THE CHANGEMAKER PLAYBOOK will show you how to thrive in every aspect of today's transformed societal landscape.A tutorial on the principles of empathy-based ethics and co-creative teamwork, THE CHANGEMAKER PLAYBOOK is as much a leadership handbook as it is a guide to personal achievement. Based on the author's discoveries about leading in change from front-edge thinkers - business and social entrepreneurs, educators, media thought leaders and youth changemakers - who distinguish themselves by putting their bold ideas and entrepreneurial capacities to work for the good of all, readers can apply the principles in this bookto every aspect of their lives.This book is less about getting ahead and more about getting along - because in the world we have entered, this is the central principle underlying the new success formula.

298 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2021

About the author

Hon. Henry F. De Sio, Jr. is known as the global ambassador for changemakers. A leadership advisor, campaign and organizational strategist, and keynote speaker, he has served as the executive of both startups and large, complex organizations. As the 2008 Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and then serving as Deputy Assistant to the President in the Obama White House, De Sio came to be intimately acquainted with a new emerging pattern of societal change. He has since followed his campaign-driven passion for hope and change to make changemaking a global phenomenon.

De Sio has engaged with the world's leading social and business entrepreneurs, and he has brought the powerful framework of new leadership and team-of-teams organization described in Changemaker Playbook to business boardrooms, editorial newsrooms, university classrooms, governmental chambers, and community forums all over the world.

De Sio holds a master's degree in public administration from Harvard's Kennedy School, and he earned his B.A. in political science from the University of California-Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Nicholas Brealy Publishing, for the advance reading copy.

This guidebook is a much needed one today as most of the popular guidebooks do not apply for every work situation and different kinds of leadership.

I love how direct and practical the content is. With three different sections with concise chapters, different work scenarios are given and explained for the different leaders. Love the relevant anecdotes and real experiences used for the explanations.

Take your time while reading this book. It's going to make huge changes in your work and make your team work better than it has ever done before.

We know it's the application parts that would be the most difficult. But the basics are explained quite well in a manner the reader will be excited to follow and apply.

Go for this if you truly desire to become a leader who would become the leader you wanted to be.

[Allison Berryhill · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, this felt like a book written for MBAs, not for me, a high-school teacher. But after I got past some jargon (procurement, empowerment, systems, leadership hierarchy), I found De Sio's central tenets resonated with what I see in the best classroom teaching: Empathy, Passion, Self-definition, and Fluid Teamwork. These are the pillars of De Sio's "changemaker" mentality. He explains, convincingly, that we are behind the times when teaching toward siloed, repetition-based careers. Instead, the core skills students need for succeeding in our new world of rapid change are self-identification (know and name your strengths); empathy (see problems and solutions through the eyes of others); passion (find and pursue compelling ideas); and teamwork (the ability to form fluid, cross-boundary teams of problem-solvers as the needs arise).

I found it interesting to reflect on ways De Sio's "new physics of leadership" dovetail with some things I've been doing in my classroom of late: passion projects, self-identification of strengths, and empathy-building through perspective-taking. I look forward to using the "teams of teams" approach with my journalism students (especially broadcasting, where the reformation of teams as needed is a natural fit). De Sio also has me re-thinking the roles of our lead editors and myself, the adviser. I look forward to re-working some of our hierarchical structures in the journalism lab and finding ways for the "leaders" to reposition ourselves as co-equal changemakers.

I'm passing my book onto my son, a 26-year-old with an entrepreneurial spirit, a heart of empathy, following a nontraditional path out west where he's following his passions. I look forward to hearing what he thinks about it, as he has already embraced the new style of leadership De Sio champions.

This book has already changed how I'm seeing the world. It will change my teaching this coming year as well.

[Lindsay Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world has changed - have you changed with it? This is an incredibly important question to ask yourself today, and I guarantee this book will challenge you to step into your own leadership style and give you a playbook for doing just that. CHANGEMAKER PLAYBOOK will surprise you with its insights and get you ready for the new post-COVID normal. I highly recommend this book for mid-career professionals who are looking to grow into their leadership style.

This book was a real blessing in disguise for me. It pulled together several thoughts I've been mulling around in my head for a while, the key one being: where do I fit in this "everyone is a brand" world? As an introvert and someone who prefers to lead through empathy and collaboration, I haven't seen myself as a change-maker before. But this book challenged me to think differently. It is filled with stories and examples that also helped me think about how I can manage others in this new world. I have staff that I want to empower, and CHANGEMAKER PLAYBOOK helped me see just how I can do that.

5 stars, I highly recommend this book. Thank you to Nicholas Brealey Publishing for the advanced reader copy; I loved it so much I ordered the book to read again. This time I'll be taking copious notes in the margins!

[Vishal Talreja · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Changemaker Playbook is the seminal guide to Thrive in the 21st Century. Henry is a master story-teller and he has this inspiring ability to weave insights and paradigm shifts happening in our society from his own life experiences, what he sees around him and how he sees the world as he listens to changemkers with authentic empathy. His ability to trasnform the stories into a framework for living, succeeding and thriving in the world of explosive and omnidirectional change is just brilliant.

The world around us has changed. We are all experiencing and living in this 'Everyone a changemaker' world as walls are breaking down and each of us are expected to move into our BIGness. Henry has seen, felt, experienced this world and has brought to us pathways for how we can prepare ourselves for this new world.

This a must-read for education leaders, policy makers, entrepreneurs but most importantly for parents, teachers and young people themselves as they navigate this new world.

Disclosure: Henry features my journey and some aspects of the work done by Dream a Dream.

[Darya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most constant thing is change. The world around us is changing, technology influenced our personal and professional lives, the way of doing business changes. What is important for today's leader? Embrace the change, act with empathy, look forward to new things and keep positive attitude. There are a lot of interesting stories in the book that teach embracing change.

[Asim Ghaffar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is insightful and has some solid ideas however it is not easy to read book… some times connections between the stories doesn’t seem natural..
I am a tech executive who also has worked extensively as a volunteer with one of the Code for All chapters so I can relate to many stories at some level.. and connect dots.. but an average reader may struggle..

I think the book can be improved by just adding key take aways at the end of each chapter and perhaps 2-3 questions that the readers can ask themselves or 2-3 action items to do before they start the next chapter

Just my two cents.

[Aurbal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like someone else said, I didn’t think this would book would be relevant to me, but I quickly saw this wasn’t the case and that it applied to everyone in every day situations. He outlined that very clearly; his writing was straightforward, and the examples he used throughout the book were interesting and relevant. It is really easy to get into the book and understand what he was saying.

My friend’s mom recommended this to me and I’m glad she did!