Leadership topic - America

America is the experiment a group of very different people agreed to run together, and it works only while they keep taking the time to see and hear each other. The colonies had far less in common than we remember. They came together because their differences with each other were smaller than their differences with England, and each one had to give up some of its freedom to keep the others. The question is the same in a country and on a team: what will you give up to stay together, and who are you taking the time to really hear?

Kansas grew out of high school bands around Wichita and Topeka: 6 musicians and their equipment in one station wagon, living on corn dogs. To show a New York producer they had a following, they rented an old opera house in Ellinwood for $150 and spent what was left on free beer. Their first album cover was a mural from the Kansas State House, and they went on to 7 Gold albums in a row. Song for America, the track that brought them to this week, is an ode from the middle of the country to all of it.

As the wheat literally was flying past me, I began to realize just how big this country is. Particularly as you get further away from the coasts, the terrain, and a lot of the divisions flatten out as the time and miles roll on. Come along for 7 days with Kansas, straight from the middle… and find out what America asks of you.