“I do not come from a military background. Her family, it's been very much part of her background—although my grandfather was a test pilot—but it was not deep in the ethic of our family. She's brought me into things that connect with the military and has taught me a lot about the honorable importance of service in all of it's forms, including military.
And so the first was at West Point with a—this gathering where we had 36 leaders from different sectors—12 military army generals, 12 fortune 500 CEO types, and then finally 12 leaders from the social sectors and all sitting at tables, 2, 2, 2. And Frances asked me to come spend half a day leading them with a question about America. And I said, ‘Okay, any guidance?’ And she says, ‘Oh no.’ ‘But I'd like some guidance.’ ‘You'll be fine.’
Okay, so I live in terror and we went up and did this thing, but the amazing thing was, it was a setting for a very intense conversation about the question of where is America through these different lenses, and what really jumped out to me about that experience was the setting of the stage, of bringing together the three different sectors; the military sector, the social sector and the business sector, to really wrestle with the question of, ‘Where is America? Where should America be? Where should it be going? What are the issues that we need to face?’ And through all of these different lenses.
And it was because of the creation of that stage—I did very little other than ask some questions—the exchanges across the people were quite remarkable, and it gave me a great question to wrestle with, but, more important for everyone else, I think, it gave them a great chance to struggle with the question of, not only restoring trust in America, but, ‘Is America working? Right?’
And you can't just look at it in a single sector lens. You can't answer the question 'Is America' looking only through a business lens. You cannot answer the question ‘Is America’ looking only through a government agency or military lens, or through a social sector lens. You have to look through all the lenses and the brilliance of it was putting them all together in the same room, in the Eisenhower room up at West Point.”