Scott Mann

And then I started bringing that into talks that I would give from the stage.

And ultimately, what I realized was, man, the churn is here.

The churn, the same churn that was kicking our ass in Afghanistan, it's in this country.

You know, we're more divided and disconnected than we've ever been.

We're acting like tribes, you know, instead of out of many come one.

And so what I decided for me for the rest of my life was I'm gonna pour the rest of my years into

building a methodology of interpersonal skillsets and rapport building and communication skills, and I'm gonna teach that to leaders in corporate America, in communities, nonprofits, wherever I can, how to use storytelling, active listening, nonverbal communication to build relationships when it's hard, when people are scared, when they're angry.

when nobody's coming.

And I've been working on that for six years.

I've rewritten this damn thing probably 15 times.

But after Pineapple and after we did the play Last Out and Gary Sinise picked it up and people just kept asking like, well, how did you do Pineapple when you didn't have any money or authorities or resources?

And how did you do a play that Gary Sinise produced when you're not even a trained actor or you've ever written a play?

And the answer was old school interpersonal skills and relationships, building social capital and surrounding myself with people who see the problem the way I see the problem and who are better than me.

And then building that collective in such a way that we can take on any kind of ambiguity or wicked problem.

And I just love it.

And so that's, I thought, man, if I could put that in a book that's like stories and best practices,

where individuals like you who are, you're building this massive movement and you are literally filling the gap, as you said, that media is not filling, that politics is not filling.

If I can pour into you supplemental information on, okay, here's how storytelling actually works on the brain.

Here's how active listening actually works.

If you ask questions that start with what and how, you have a much better chance of establishing reciprocity.