Today, I am thankful for those who not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk. Those paragons of change management ensure we never lose sight of the ultimate goal.
In my role, I have the distinct pleasure to interact with individuals who serve as program managers for our various project teams. These stalwarts not only help to set the mission for a specific project but they also help drive its execution. Their role is crucial in ensuring the on-time delivery of critical milestones, articulating the various programmatic risks, and managing the timelines, budgets, and contracts. At the team level, they often facilitate debate, provide necessary feedback to the team, and closely monitor team dynamics. As one of my project manager coworkers best describes her role, she’s the ‘grout’ that keeps all the other tiles in order. In essence, our project managers ensure we walk the walk.
Yes, every critical mission needs an astute, diligent, and dedicated project manager.
Case in point is the role a fiery, steadfast leader from Adams, Massachusetts, played in the woman’s suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family exactly 200 years ago on this day (Feb 15, 1820), Susan B. Anthony was inculcated at an early age the tenets of social equality. By the age of 17, she was already actively involved in the abolitionist movement to end slavery. Self-educated in social reform issues, she partnered with individuals like Elizabeth Cady Stanton to speak at conferences, author her own newspaper, and write endless petitions to state legislatures, Congress, and the press, advocating for the equal vote of African Americans and of women. She gave as many as 100 speeches per year in state campaigns & in Congress, all the while doing so with her own funding. She coordinated the entire women’s suffrage movement, ultimately becoming the ‘grout’ that kept the mission afloat.
She also walked the walk. One particular story speaks to her intense tenacity, grit, and commitment. In 1872, on the day of the US Presidential election, she convinced the election inspectors in Rochester, New York, to allow her and 4 other women to cast a vote. She was arrested 2 weeks later for illegal voting. Her case was heard in a district court in June 1873, where she was forbidden the right to speak at her own trial prior to the rendering of the court decision. She finally was granted permission to speak, ultimately castigating the judge and judicial process for trampling on her rights. She was fined $100. She responded: “I shall never pay a dollar for your unjust penalty.” And, guess what? She never did. The judge could have ordered her arrest, but he opted not to follow through. The fine has still not been paid.
Sadly, Susan B. Anthony died in 1906, sixteen years before the ratification of a woman’s right to vote via the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She remains the exemplar of the entire movement. More aptly, she remains the consummate example of someone who walked the walk.
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