Jeff Williams forged a long career of bringing people together as a business and community leader and, as mayor, leading the city’s effort to keep the Texas Rangers in Arlington and develop the Entertainment District.
Now, Williams has distilled his expertise in consensus building into a new book, “The Unity Blueprint: Aligning People & Purpose for Lifelong Success,” which became available Sept. 9. It’s a guide on how to bring people together and accomplish great things in business, community projects, and family even during a time of polarization in American society.
(Courtesy photo | Sunwest Communications)
“I think you need to believe in unity. I think you need to also understand that anything you’re working on will be so much better if you value people and include them in your endeavor. For them to believe that your outcome will be better, you will be able to be more effective,” Williams said. “And when I say effective, you can actually save time and do a better project if you include people in your initiative.”
Williams, who was mayor from May 2015 to June 2021, said that one of the big side effects of working together on a project that other people are passionate about is “how you can forge incredible friendships. Suddenly, walls are broken down. Barriers are broken down with people that may not look like you, may not even speak the same native language.”
It’s all about the common good.
“They may come from different walks of life, but you understand each other, and you’re working hard to achieve a common goal, and it’s one of the keys to life. As a matter of fact, God made us to live in community and to do good and there’s no better feeling than when you’re working to make a difference and working together and you achieve that goal together. It’s an amazing thing.”
Williams said that many times, people need a distraction from some of the problems that may be going on in their lives and need that opportunity to help someone else.
“It’s a game changer in your life to work together,” Williams said. “It’s one of the best things I know, to combat loneliness and depression and create happiness and joy because you’re helping make a difference.”
The book’s genesis is rooted in the interest of two academics at New York University who found out about Williams’ success leading the city.
“I met two professors there from the sports management college that led to a study of Arlington, and they asked me if they could do a term project with their master’s students on something for Arlington,” Williams said.
Williams said the professors started “a great partnership throughout the time that I was mayor, and they studied us extensively, including during the pandemic. They saw how we came together, and it made a difference on so many projects.”
The professors told him they thought the key was inclusive leadership, which evolved into unity.
“They actually connected me with Forbes — and Forbes had actually polled America — and one of the things that Americans wanted was unity, and so that started it,” Williams said.
The book has been met with great interest on Amazon.
“Presales started about a month ago, and we reached number one new release a couple weeks ago, and then we reached number one bestseller in several categories from Amazon,” Williams said. “We’re now the number one Amazon bestseller and very excited about the momentum the book has.”
That response shows what Americans want in their lives.
“Obviously people do want unity, and hopefully this book will really provide many tools to help promote that, both at home, in your business, nonprofit or in the community, as you serve your community,” Williams said.
He said that readers should be sure and read the introduction, which “goes into more depth about the importance of unity, and then it also goes into an illustration of how unity matters.
“I do that throughout the book, and I think that’s the thing that’s different about this book is that it has practical stories in which the leadership, principles of unity were implemented, and it shows the things that worked, and it also shows the things that didn’t work.”
It also illustrates how people can implement building unity in their lives.
“It’s a very practical book, but we don’t have to guess whether something is going to work or not. We can show that it does or that it doesn’t through practical application,” Williams said. “The other thing, it does involve thousands of people and all walks of life that were involved in projects that I did here as an engineer, and then also serving in the nonprofit world, and then stories from my time and serving as mayor in which we had a lot to do.”
“I needed an army coming into office when the Rangers were about to leave, so many of the cities were wanting them to come to their community, and I can’t blame them. We also needed to jump-start our job creation and continue our quest to build tourism so that we could gain OPM — other people’s money — to help us pay for taking care of our neighborhoods and our street repair and so forth.”
It can’t be done alone, Williams said.
Lance Murray is a freelance contributor covering business for the Arlington Report.
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