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

Physical What you do

French sociologist Émile Durkheim proposed that ceremonial rituals not only maintain social order but also

For many, the largest stumbling block to progress is letting go of the world they know. To help people move forward, show them how their attachment to the current state holds them back, and lay out how the proposed future can and will be better for them.

anthropologist Arnold van Gennep first introduced the term “rites of passage,” he wrote, “All societies use rites to demarcate transitions” in life. He saw them as rites of regeneration, in which the old self must ritually die before a new self can emerge.

Persuasive speeches establish a gap between what is and what could be, and then resolve it by introducing a new bliss

Some of your fellow travelers are adventurous, too, and ready to dive right in without trepidation. But others will hesitate just long enough to let doubt creep in. If you don’t encourage them, their apprehension will develop into varying degrees of fear—from apathy to panic—that will leave them immobilized and unwilling to act.

Once you can picture your dream as a reality, you can communicate it to others, which is the vital first step in your venture. The more clearly you can envision it, the more urgency you probably feel to run toward it. Yet while you may see utopia in your mind’s eye, it may still be a hazy, faraway place to your travelers. You’ll need to paint a viv

are the ones who change the world.

develop group cohesion and strong interpersonal relations.

Using moments to turn artifacts into meaningful symbols seems part of human nature;