The Room Where It Happens

When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game

But you don't get a win unless you play in the game

Oh, you get love for it, you get hate for it

You get nothing if you

Wait for it, wait for it, wait

I've got to be in

The room where it happens

-Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton  

Last month I had the extraordinary honor of joining civic leaders from around the world at the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago. At a moment when our public discourse is dominated by discord and division, the experience could not have been a more perfect antidote.

We came together in Chicago as 500 passionate doers, united by our shared belief in a more peaceful, prosperous and equitable future. Regardless of origin, we were welcomed as equals. From the main stage to the breakout sessions and social spaces, relationships mattered more than resumes, presence more than position, and actions more than words. During those two days amongst inspiring change-makers, something in me broke open. The thoughts and doubts that have kept me feeling small or powerless were silenced, and my fears were overpowered by a contagious courage.

In a revolutionary approach to event planning, we were invited to re-envision what Lin-Manuel Miranda calls, “The room where it happens.” Billionaires sat on the floor organizing post-it note brainstorms alongside community organizers from Nigeria and Brazil. A pair of young black novelists spontaneously played TLC from an iPhone in their presentation to a room of CEOs, ambassadors and royalty. And President Obama himself perused the community art exhibitions and slipped in and out of workshops to ask provocative questions. It was an remarkable convergence of brilliant minds, generous souls, and an invitation - in fact, a requirement - to be vulnerable.

When we arrived for a gala dinner on the first evening, there was no seating chart or choreographed keynote. At the entrance we each picked a number from a hat for our random seat assignment. Reverend Jennifer Bailey, one of the founders of The People’s Supper which has hosted thousands of community dinners across the country since the 2016 election, primed us for what she termed a ‘brave conversation.’

“Community dinners are engines of empathy – tools for seeing ourselves in each other,” she said.

Together with my lively crew of dinner companions, we exercised our empathy muscle, listening to each other with the intent not to respond, but to truly understand. Through a simple human exchange I felt us deconstructing and reconstructing the room where change happens.

The next morning I joined an energizing panel together with some of my social impact heroes. Our session explored how to inspire many more - and more diverse - talented young people to pursue public sector and social impact careers. We talked about the importance of our formative experiences that got us proximate to inequity, revealed our “social justice nerve,” and connected us with mentors who helped us believe in ourselves. And despite our different vantages - as a small-town mayor, a former prime minister and a social entrepreneur - we were unified in one belief: if the future is going to look different than the present, we need a generation of leaders with the insight and conviction to change things for the better.

Halfway through the session, President Obama unexpectedly slipped into the room. He positioned himself casually against the back wall, chewing gum, drinking tea and listening intently.

I will never forget the moment I saw him appear. Suddenly, we weren’t just talking about social change -- we were in the room where it happens.

After the panel, when President Obama came to the front of the room, I somehow found the words to thank him for insisting that we need bolder visions, bigger stages and solutions that scale to the size of the problems we’re tackling. We spoke about the strides our country could make if young Americans from all backgrounds were encouraged and incentivized – through college admissions, financial aid and course credit - to use the transition between high school and college to find their own sense of purpose and civic identity. And we delighted in the impact his daughter Malia had by inspiring a generation of students to see a “gap” year before college not as remedial, but as an aspiration.

In just a few minutes of conversation I felt the full force of President Obama’s warmth, optimism and humility. He renewed my conviction that our bold vision at Global Citizen Year - to launch a generation of leaders who are equipped to move our world ahead - is not an option, it’s an imperative. And he infused me with the confidence to know that it’s possible.

President Obama closed the Summit with this invitation: 

"I’ve been in ‘the room where it happens’ and here’s the secret: no one in that room is inherently better equipped than you...You all are equally qualified to be in that room - you’ll get there if you can keep believing in yourself, the power of others and your ability to connect the two."

Weeks later, I am still turbocharged by this singular insight: organizations and ideas don’t move history, people do. Each of us can find ourselves “in the room where it happens” -- but we only get there when we recognize our full potential. 

The Obama Foundation Summit expanded my sense of possibility, grounded me in confidence and filled me with hope that feels like limitless fuel. Most importantly, it invigorated my sense of purpose: to find my full power as a citizen and leader so that I can create room for others to do the same.

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A few of my favorite talks….

The Summit’s main stage speakers were riveting, and more diverse than I’ve ever seen at a single gathering; of the 30 presenters, 12 were women and 19 were people of color. They included the inspired truth-tellers, prophetic visionaries and cultural icons of our age.

Here are a few of the talks and ideas that stirred me:

Anand Giridharadas: For decades, we imagined democracy to be a supermarket, where you popped in whenever you needed something. Now we remember that democracy is a farm, where you reap what you sow.

Heather McGhee: Something is broken in the demos of our democracy. We value next quarter's profits over our next generation’s survival. Too many of us when we look at each other see “other”, not “us”....America’s demographic changes aren’t the undoing of America, they are the fulfillment of our audacious potential as a nation.

Michelle Obama: Happiness doesn’t just happen. You have to schedule in the laughter. We do a better job taking care of business when we are making time to take care of ourselves….Barack is my rock, but my girlfriends are my survival. Men, you need to get yourselves some friends… Seriously.

Eric Liu: Injustice only prevails where hopelessness persists. Your hope is your superpower.