Scaling Mamdani
It was magical.
Did you see this?
Is this a tease? Will he do this on a regular basis? How do I get on the list?
My question? Mr Mayor will you do this once a month?
Why couldn’t he? The first 100 people to sign up get 2 minutes each. Mamdani asks a couple of follow up questions and takes notes. Say all in its 5 minutes a person x 100 people = 500 minutes divided by 60 = 8.5 hours
A days work - once a month - It’s doable
Imagine what he hears. The patterns he spots first hand. The emotions he feels.
And thats not even the best part - Imagine the example in listening he gives to the millions watching the live stream.
I mean people watched The Great Moose Migration, a 24/7 marathon live stream. Why not The Mayor is Listening ?
Now that he’s inspired us, why not let us in on the game? Why not build a team that replicates his example all over New York.
Imagine 100 New Yorkers - Lets call it New York is Listening. Volunteers, convening circles of other New Yorkers . Once a month they go out into all the boroughs and ask the same question. A new question each month.
Questions like
If I thought The Mayor would listen here’s what I’d say
The thing I love most about living in New York is…..
If I was Mayor, the first thing I’d change is…
Heres an idea I have for how to make things better for The City _____________
Watching Mamdani listen and take notes made me feel __________________
The responses could be organized and sent to Mamdani. This could inform issues to debate, policies to enact, programs to start/stop, budgets and even the of focus of his speeches.
This simple act could be revolutionary.
The New York is Listening volunteers could provide the Mamdanis team, with great ideas and change the spirit of the city. Ok, if that can happen then imagine 1000 volunteers doing this once a month, it’s easy if you try. Now you have both powerful stories + powerful data to help Mamdani and his team make decisions.
But the most important thing Mamdani did was what he didn’t do
Mamdani modeled how to not talk.
Magical yes. Magic no.
Here’s how he pulled off that trick (its actually so simple you can learn how to do it yourself )
A clock,. A question “Whats on your mind” and a notebook.
3 parts to 1 tool
Yes he had the advantage of being famous and powerful
Yes he had the advantage of being brilliant and a unusually high emotional IQ
Sure he has super smart people around him who understood the power of capitalizing on the moment
But that isn’t what made the moment. What made this work was the tool he used
Do you know how to use a screwdriver. So does Mamdani
Do you know how to ride a bike. Ill bet he does too
Do you know how to listen to someone . So does Mamdani
All he did that was different was he did it intentionally, on purpose.
He scaled it
It was magical to watch, wasn’t it
Its magical to watch the impact of people being heard and seen
It’s magical to experience the emotions shared between the Mayor and the people
It’s magical but it’s not magic. It can happen over and over again
I’d watch that. It would be better than watching moose migrate


I had not seen this. Makes me feel hopeful, at least for the people of NYC. listening to othered on purpose. Not talking. Those are some really powerful ideas there, amigo. 😉