Changemakers
How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World
Today’s radically complex problems require people to lead with design. Changemakers is an essential playbook for designers and nondesigners who want to drive change at work, at home, and in their communities. Groundbreaking designers Maria Giudice and Christopher Ireland—armed with insights from some of today’s top minds in business, tech, and social justice—offer a pragmatic, people-centered approach to change.
Who Should Read This Book?
Changemakers can be designers, leaders, CEOs, tech people, project managers, product people—virtually anyone who wants to embrace and address change. This book will show them how to do it by clearly defining, studying, and addressing change as a design problem to be solved.
Takeaways
- A new approach to change is emerging, and design is at the forefront of responding and provoking change.
- Purpose and passion are essential changemaker qualities.
- Change involves choosing the right problem and finding an entity open to change.
- This book will be your guide for creating and maintaining change in your organization—for you, your team, and your stakeholders.
- Leaders can design change and affect the world—this book will show them how to become that kind of leader.
- Each chapter has critical takeaways at the end of the chapter, summarizing important points.
- Each chapter gives the reader a list of extra sources to gain further knowledge.
Available from Audible and other major audiobook sellers.
Today’s radically complex problems require people to lead with design. Changemakers is an essential playbook for designers and nondesigners who want to drive change at work, at home, and in their communities. Groundbreaking designers Maria Giudice and Christopher Ireland—armed with insights from some of today’s top minds in business, tech, and social justice—offer a pragmatic, people-centered approach to change.
Who Should Read This Book?
Changemakers can be designers, leaders, CEOs, tech people, project managers, product people—virtually anyone who wants to embrace and address change. This book will show them how to do it by clearly defining, studying, and addressing change as a design problem to be solved.
Takeaways
- A new approach to change is emerging, and design is at the forefront of responding and provoking change.
- Purpose and passion are essential changemaker qualities.
- Change involves choosing the right problem and finding an entity open to change.
- This book will be your guide for creating and maintaining change in your organization—for you, your team, and your stakeholders.
- Leaders can design change and affect the world—this book will show them how to become that kind of leader.
- Each chapter has critical takeaways at the end of the chapter, summarizing important points.
- Each chapter gives the reader a list of extra sources to gain further knowledge.
Available from Audible and other major audiobook sellers.
Testimonials
Changemakers is a revelation. Maria Giudice and Christopher Ireland have written a breathtaking book on what it really takes to create meaningful, sustainable innovation in today’s world. They have deftly created a brave and brilliant manifesto on how to create change that makes a difference and makes perfect sense.
Debbie Millman, Host, Design Matters
Maria Giudice and Christopher Ireland provide an expert guide for leaders who are encountering resistance in their ongoing change efforts. Whether that is in the work they lead, the teams they manage, or the competitive space they are charged to define against all odds. Changemakers has been crafted by two extremely gifted ‘changemakers’ — their combined gifts are certain to nourish, protect, and heal.
John Maeda, Technologist
In backing startups as an investor, I increasingly see founders identifying design as the key for realizing the better future they are envisioning. This book offers an actionable framework to be intentional, inclusive, iterative, and effective by using design as a superpower in affecting change.
Anne Dwane, Co-founder and Partner, Village Global
Table of Contents
Foreword by Kat Holmes
Chapter 1: The Imperfect Future
Chapter 2: Becoming a Changemaker
Chapter 3: Finding a Fit
Chapter 4: Foundations of Success
Chapter 5: Co-Creating Change
Chapter 6: Following a Map
Chapter 7: Shaping the Narrative
Chapter 8: Building Support
Chapter 9: Discover What’s Possible
Chapter 10: Envisioning the Outcome
Chapter 11: Learning What Works
Chapter 12: When Things Go Wrong
Chapter 13: When Things Go Right
Chapter 14: Evolving by Design
Sample Chapter
This is a sample chapter from Maria Giudice and Christopher Ireland’s book Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World. 2023, Rosenfeld Media.
Chapter 1: The Imperfect Future
When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, the concept of progress was almost universally popular. Few people protested the arrival of new vaccines, faster food, advanced appliances, or more powerful cars. The envisioned future had its own neighborhood in Disneyland and popular television shows imagined even more transformations on the horizon.
