Featured in Executives Diary: Why Strangers Agree on More Than They Think

Our founder, Shaka Mitchell, was recently featured in Executives Diary's Thought Leadership series. The piece explores the idea at the heart of Come Together Music Project: people who seem to disagree on everything often have more in common than they expect, and music is one of the fastest ways to find out.

The article opens with a CTMP session where two lawyers with different hometowns, genders, and politics were asked to share songs tied to home, a hard day, and justice. After an hour of trading songs and stories, they traded phone numbers too, and discovered their views on justice were far closer than they had assumed.

Beyond "win or lose"

Shaka's core argument is that most disagreements aren't zero-sum. The feature traces that conviction to his years in Tennessee education policy, including his work with the American Federation for Children on an Education Savings Account pilot that funded scholarships while also adding new money for the public schools affected. That pilot later became the model for a statewide program.

How the sessions work

At each CTMP session, guests who look like they'd have little to say to each other, like a chef and an Olympian or a mayor and a musician, answer prompts with a song and then explain why they chose it. The format trades debate for personal disclosure. As the article describes it, people stop treating each other as representatives of a side and start seeing each other as individuals who happen to hold different views.

Lessons for leaders

The feature closes with practical takeaways any leader can borrow: open with a personal prompt instead of titles and job descriptions, let everyone share something personal before tackling the contested issue, measure whether people are listening rather than whether they agree, and don't skip the personal step when time gets tight.

Read the full feature on Executives Diary