Work to do in the shadows

Illness and the grey, rainy weather of November in Chicago have put mein a philosophical mood.  I have been contemplating a few things.  Today, accordingto the United States Census Bureau, there are 7.2 million people on the planet Earth.  That is twice the population of when I entered this world pink and helpless in 1968.  How have we doubled the world’s population without famine, war, and the complete collapse of civilization?  It struck me that what keeps the world civilized are many people working quietly in the shadows to keep it that way.  I am one of them, and I am sure some of you are too.

When I was born, the big intellectual book of the time was Paul R. and Anne Ehrilch’s “The Population Bomb.”  The book argued convincingly that as the world population grew, it would be harder to feed and provide for additional people.  The authors did not count on the smarts of scientists, engineers, and ordinary people like me to solve problems.  The green revolution spread through the developed and third world during the 1950s and 1960s.  This gave the world enough to eat.  What started the green revolution?  Scientists and farmers realized there needed to be better yieldof crops and figured out a way to do it.

During the 1940s the biggest killer of children in the United States was polo.  Countless children died or were forced to breathe with iron lungs.  The March of Dimes was founded because they sought a means to wipe out polo.  It took tremendous efforts from science and government but the first vaccines began to appear in 1952 and polo was eradicated in the United States. 

The March of Dimes continues its efforts today, but instead of polo, they have focused on birth defects.  Again, to the rescue, stubborn and determined people who worked quietly doing the necessary work.  People like Clair Patterson determined the age of the earth but also found the link between leaded gasoline and lead poisoning in humans.  With opposition from the petroleum industry, Clair proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that lead levels were rising.  With the help of Congress and international treaties, lead gasoline was banned.  As the level of lead in the atmosphere declined, we also saw a decrease in birth defects and problems caused by lead poisoning worldwide.

Again, it is not glamorous work, but it is necessary to make the 7.2 million people on earth happy and healthy.  Civil engineers are working to ensure that sewers keep our drinking water safe.  It is the work being done by infectious disease specialists tracking bird flu and Ebola.  This is the work of software developers helping build logistics systems that move goods and services across the country. Doctors, janitors, clerks, nurses, and ordinary people make hospitals more effective and efficient.

Some of you may ask, where does agile come into this picture?  For too long, the world of business has been dominated by too many damaged, neurotic, and just plain mean people perpetuating a cycle of abuse kept alive by the threat to take away living wages.  It is why investment bankers didn't leave their steakhouses and joined the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Agile and the agile movement, which I am proud to be a part of, are not revolutions but evolutions of the business world so that it is more humane, sustainable, and satisfying to the people doing the work.  In other words, work is changing from toil serving unnamed shareholders or executives to a craft where people can take pride in what they do.  We have so much work to do, but in just thirteen years since the creation of the Agile Manifesto, the face of business is changing, and more of them are “doing” agile.  I hope they will “be” agile as soon as possible.

People like me quietly work in the shadows to make it happen.

Until next time.