FRANCES and PURPOSE by Warren Bennis

“It's almost a tacit connection that we were all after the same thing, and when I say, ‘what is the thing we are all after?’, it's to see if we can create human institutions which have the capacity to bring out the very best in us. . . What could be a more noble undertaking than to create organizations where people feel respected, where people feel that they are valued, where people feel that they can collaborate to make a difference in the world? And only through collaboration can you really, really work together to make a better world. . . One of our greatest presidents—Abraham Lincoln—who in his second inauguration speech said, ‘The role of the leader, the role of the president, is to bring out the better angels in us.’ And I think Frances and I have tried to help human institutions create a culture where that is possible and where people grow and learn. . . We are, it's as if we're still somehow two mountaineers, you know, striving to climb the same mountain roped together, and loving the fact, and KNOWING the fact, that neither of us could do this alone.”