Respect for All People

Abstract The author, Leader to Leader's editor‐in‐chief, reflects on her recent experience at a “large learning event in Charleston, South Carolina.” While describing the discourse in some of the sessions, she notes that the subjects of politics and artificial intelligence (AI) were brought up in the question and answer portion of each session, “regardless of the topic” of the session. She describes a visit to the Old Slave Mart Museum, established in 1938 in the city, “the first museum on the history of slavery and the domestic slave trade in the United States.” The content of the exhibits, “in combination with the fear and conflict about the current state of humanity and the world that had been shared in the sessions at the learning event; led me to reflect deeply on the principle of positive change that consistently underlies all positive progress for humanity, regardless of epoch, era, or circumstance: Respect for All People.” The latter was a “…battle cry and lifelong mission of our Leader to Leader founding editor‐in‐chief Frances Hesselbein.” She also describes Peter Drucker's 1942 formulation of the concept of “a functioning society, and how Drucker believed that the public, private, and social sectors form an interdependent ecosystem.”