Introduction

Welcome! My name is Marianne Powers. have been studying people who work in offices for 35 years.

This research has taken place in more than 50 offices, where my nominal reason for being there was that I was an employee, manager, temporary worker, or consultant, and has included working in Washington DC, Maryland, Nevada, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, and traveling in all of the 48 contiguous states.

The first 30 years of this study was devoted almost exclusively to complaining, joining and leaving various shifting alliances, and fighting, which was very interesting but not very productive.

The last 5 years, my studies have become more philosophical and more productive, addressing such issues as why we fight and what might happen if we stop fighting and put all our energy into achieving our goals together. Getting here, I discovered what a leader knows.