Achieve Great Things

What makes someone influential? What qualities do people see in compelling communicators and charismatic leaders? At a time when many people seem to be losing faith in institutions, what can leaders and organizations do to build trust and influence? On this episode of Achieve Great Things, we’ll explore these questions with John Neffinger, who co-authored a book that’s required reading at Harvard, Columbia and other business schools around the world. It’s called "Compelling People." It’s full of scientific insights and practical skills you can use to be a more influential leader or build a more influential organization.

Not long ago, some of the world’s most accomplished movement lawyers and activists gathered to tell their stories, compare notes, and share lessons about leveraging the law and mobilizing social movements to win hard-fought battles for people and the planet—even when the odds seemed impossible. They were convened by a lawyer, an activist and a storyteller, who share their stories and lessons in an amazing book—The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated: People Power and Legal Power in the 21st Century. In this episode of Achieve Great Things, we talk with Katie Redford, co-founder of Earth Rights International and the Equation Campaign, about her journey—and lessons you can use to take on powerful forces, and win.

Raj Shah is the president of the Rockefeller Foundation and the author of a new book called Big Bets: How Large Scale Change Really Happens. Dr. Shah has been part of big bets for 25 years—from vaccinating nearly a billion children to helping countries fight Ebola and COVID. Now he’s working to connect a billion people to electricity for the first time. Raj joins us on this episode of Achieve Great things to share inspiring stories and practical information you can use to achieve great things.

Bestselling author Dan Pink has opened millions of minds to practical insights from social science that can help all of us be better communicators. In this episode of Achieve Great Things, Dan returns to share Top Takeaways from his #1 New York Times bestsellers: To Sell is Human and Drive: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others. You’ll take away insights and ideas you can use to communicate with maximum motivating power.

Desmond Meade is president of the Florida Rights Restoration Committee, which inspired the nation with a grassroots campaign that passed a groundbreaking constitutional amendment with a win few saw coming—a supermajority of 62% of the vote. It restored voting rights to 1.5 million people with prior felony convictions who had served their time. The campaign was unique in transcending typical political divides and mobilizing volunteers, donors, and voters across the spectrum. Time magazine called Desmond Meade one of the country’s most influential people. He’s a MacArthur Foundation Genius Fellow, a Ford Foundation Global Fellow, and his organization was nominated for a Nobel Prize. On this episode, we’ll talk with Desmond Meade about ideas you can use to create campaigns that transcend political divides to achieve great things.

Dealing with disinformation tops the agenda for all kinds of organizations working on all kinds of issues. We’re bombarded by fake news, foreign propaganda, consumer scams and other kinds of deliberate disinformation that make it hard to sort out fact from fiction.

Alex Cole has been on the frontlines of information wars around the world. He says America is “under a disinformation assault from within and outside our borders.” The “urgency to counter this threat can’t be overstated.” And “convenient solutions” are hard to find.

Alex is Vice President of External Affairs at Internews, an international nonprofit that believes “everyone deserves trustworthy news and information.” Internews has 30 offices worldwide and supports independent media in 100 countries, reaching millions of people with information they can trust.

At the global nonprofit IREX, he helped organizations in Ukraine and other countries fight back against the onslaught of disinformation from the Putin regime in Russia.

On this episode of Achieve Great Things, we’ll talk about real solutions—practical steps your organization can take to fight one of the most important challenges facing the field of communications—and democracy itself.

Jessica Blank is on a “mission to impact our world through the transformative power of story.” She’s an award-winning writer, director, actor, producer, coach, consultant, and teacher.

She has an amazing track record of creating art that leads to impact. She and her husband, Erik Jensen, launched a new form of art-for-impact, called “documentary theater.” They created a play about people condemned to Death Row for crimes they didn’t commit. That work of art helped change policy and save lives.

She teaches about the brain science of storytelling, the structure of storytelling, and the power of storytelling to “move us, change us, and make us see the world in new ways.”

In this episode of Achieve Great Things, we’ll talk with Jessica Blank about ways you can use the power of storytelling to create impact.

Dan Pink is the author of bestselling books that have opened millions of minds to insights from social science to help us be better leaders, managers and marketers—and also healthier, happier people. His most recent book is called The Power of Regret. We all have regrets, though we often think it’s best not to. Dan has studied the science of regret and conducted original research—collecting regrets from more than 16,000 people in 150 countries. Like his other books, it challenges conventional thinking. It offers insights and ideas you can put to use right away. In this episode of Achieve Great Things, we’ll talk with Dan Pink about The Power of Regret—and how to transform our regrets into a force for good in our lives and the world.

Many of us working to make change in the world spend a lot of time thinking about how to “break through the noise” of today’s hyperactive media environment. Our organizations are struggling to “be heard” above the din of news, politics, marketing and more that bombard our eyes and ears all day, every day. In this episode of Achieve Great Things, we’ll talk about something completely different: The sound of silence. We’ll learn from the authors of a provocative book with powerful lessons we can apply in our personal lives and our professional work. It’s called Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise. The book makes the bold claim that we can “repair our world by reclaiming the presence of silence in our lives.” Join us for a quiet conversation with Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz to learn how you can use the power of silence to achieve great things.

Generations of Americans grew up with Consumer Reports, a magazine packed with useful

information for making smart purchases. CR is also a national nonprofit with a storied history, an

important mission, and a timely all to action. CR’s CEO, Marta Tellado, is out with a new book, "Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace." On this episode of Achieve Great Things, we’ll talk with Marta about challenges and dangers facing consumers in today’s hyper-connected marketplace—and the potential for building consumer power to create change.