Harvard business school did this thing in 2003, where they interviewed the top 200 business gurus around the world. And they said, who was your guru? And they published the go to his guru list. Number one, on that list with Peter Drucker. Government hired him.

Non-profits big companies. He was the management leadership guru of the 20th century and had a lot of wise things to say. And he reveals that he had a guru.

And it's a woman named Mary Parker Follett. 1868 to 1933. So this is the gurus gurus guru. Who is she? I've certainly never heard of her. And I'm kind of a leadership business book dork. I mean, I read lots of them!

She's got a good Wikipedia page. There's a whole Follett society website online. I kind of go deep into that and start reading her work. And I'm just blown away because here she is a hundred years ago, writing. As the U S has coming out of a global pandemic with deep divisions within America, social economic, you name it, and what she has to say about how she can help heal America.

She's really alive to this idea of power and. As I read her writings, she's like, look, I don't think power is something that should be lorded over other people.

She saw a lot of that. That's not good. She also saw the danger of hoarding power all to yourself. So she saw the disempowerment that, that dependence brought and the alienation that pure independence brings. and she made the point that like, independence feels good for a second, but it's really just dependent on only yourself.

And she thought, and she studied this and then she practiced this on the front lines of social work for 25 years. She was like, look, I think power, good power, power that multiplies, can be made. And that was her insight. I think. You can, we can generate power together in small groups for productive ends.

But so often we do the opposite and we kill power and we kill energy and initiative.

And she was obsessed with, this idea of how do you create. Unity without demanding uniformity, or if you flip that other another way around, how do you get the best of diversity? That's all around without it just leading to division. So that that's what guided her. She felt that the way to heal this was really practical and tactical and it could begin, um, at your next, you know, Monday morning meeting.

And she had like a PhD in meetings cause she had spent 25 years on every committee imaginable in Boston, minimum wage committees, what to do with public schools, after school hours closed meetings. I mean, she was a sucker for these things and she loved it and she said, look, there are four possible outcomes of any meeting, but only one of them is worthwhile.

And this really struck to me because we've all been in a lot of meetings and she said, okay, outcome, bad outcome. Number one. you go in and you try to win the meeting, like when you are idea over. And she said, well, that may feel good for you, but like, why did anyone else even show up to that meeting? If it's just your idea, they didn't add anything.

That outcome number two is the flip of that. You know, you go into the meeting and you just acquiesce. It's like, let John or Jill, they seem super fired up. Like hands-off. And she would say to you modern lingo. No, no, no. You have to bring your truth to that meeting. Why did you go to that meeting if you didn't contribute anything to John or Jill's idea, that's no better than trying to win it.

Bad outcome number three is one that we're often think is sort of the good answer, which is compromised, but she says, no, no, no. Compromise, you know, it's tempting, but really compromised his little mini equity, essences and little mini victories it's concessions.

It doesn't do what she thinks is a good outcome of a meeting, which is the only good outcome outcome number four co-creation but you as a group, sitting around a table have made something together.

If you made something together, there's magic in that and very specific magic, which is you are part of that thing you made, it is part of you. But you haven't lost yourself in it. You're no less of an individual as a result of having made it.

In a meeting and this is true of our whole country at large there's that debate like, oh, is it a melting pot? And the downside of melting pot literally is. You, you are absorbed, you lose your individuality in the pot.

And then other people say, well, no, no, no, it, it, it's a salad. Sort of everyone is distinct, and isolated. And then the combination of these distinct things is somehow. Okay. And I think she'd say not a melting pot, not a salad. It is a constellation and. If you think about what a constellation is, it's like individual stars.

Think about people who look at the other people around them as fellow stars, and then look for interesting ways to make useful patterns and connections between them to accomplish something much more impactful than they ever could alone. And that mindset. And for her, it was a mindset. Like you have to look at yourself as a star.

Right as an individual and then look at others as stars and then make this leap. And if you look at Orion's belt or something, that's a real constellation. Like it isn't, self-evidence someone has to point up to the stars and say, choose to see a line through them. And once you do, you can't unsee it.

And that's what she really encouraged. And she did for me on my journey in this book, which is this mindset leap. And I saw that in all these other leaders who had inspired me, some I'd worked with directly like president Obama, others. I just read about in history, like ambassador Winant and the creators of Wikipedia and visa and alcoholics anonymous, all these amazing organizations that have in common, this mindset and what I call constellation leadership.