- Jack Boylston was the five-year old son of Dr. Zadbiel Boylston. The elder Boylston was a devoted and loving father. I can scarcely imagine what it must have been like to watch his son wince with the process of inoculation and not knowing whether he would live or die as a result of what I, as his parent, was doing to him. Think of looking into the face of your child as you cut the little arm, rub the infected pus into the cut, and then wrap it up in a bandage, all done to a person who loves you, trusts you, depends on you, and regards you as the center of their young lives. Think of that.
- Zadbiel Boylston was the target of fierce resistance and animosity during the smallpox epidemic of 1721. Many people believed he was irresponsible for trying a technique that was unproven, especially when it involved the actual spreading of the disease. He was threatened with prosecution for murder and underwent tremendous strain for months on end. He is a powerful example of the destroyed line between public leadership actions and private leadership costs.
- Onesimus was the African-American man who told Cotton Mather about inoculation practices in his native Ghana. Onesimus gained his freedom a few years later and, sadly, disappears from the historical record. I’ve often wondered what the rest of his life was like. He told Mather about inoculation in 1716, five years before the smallpox epidemic of 1721. His namesake, Saint Onesimus, was a slave in the days of early Christianity. The Apostle Paul helped he and his master, Philemon, work out an accord whereby they developed mutual respect, compassion, and brotherly love toward each other.
- Because he was black, because he was a slave, and because he was an outsider, the input of Onesimus was discarded by almost everyone. The irony was that the person who gave him his fullest hearing was his slave master at the time, Dr. Cotton Mather. In a sense, Mather was the Philemon in the experience.
- Dr. William Douglas was the most learned and acclaimed medical doctor in Boston in 1721. He led an attempt by local authorities to ban inoculation in general and to punish Boylston for his work in particular. Douglas became a co-investor and co-contributor to a brand new type of newspaper, which featured human interest stories and high visibility topics (much like flashy periodicals try to do today). He used the newspaper in his effort to smear Boylston. One of the other contributors and opponents to inoculation was a young Benjamin Franklin. It’s ironic that a figure who later became identified with change, new ideas, and a variety of inventions and innovations would early on be so resistant to inoculation.
- I recently conducted the 1721 case study for a group of federal law-enforcement officials. It was an extraordinarily successful session. One of the participants said that Douglas was cunningly impressive in how he used media and communication to push his line of thought. My thought: exactly right.
- Information is always important but it’s at a premium in a situation like Japan or 1721 smallpox. Information adds to the power, or the supposed power, of individual leaders. How they handle it will say a lot about their leadership. Some will share and move information openly. Others will hoard or seek to control it.
- Innovation can be a hard, unforgiving, and very wearying process. A special kind of person is required for innovation. This is more than change—it runs deeper and smashes forcefully into accepted standards and techniques.
- I know my remarks about best practices run counter to much of what is popular in business and organizational circles these days. My point is that today’s best practice can sometimes be tomorrow’s “that’s-the-way-we-do-things-here” attitude.
- A mob gathered around the home of Cotton Mather in November 1721 when the epidemic reached catastrophic proportions. During the night someone threw a hand grenade into Mather’s home. It failed to explode.
- My comment about maybe “it’s a good thing” that the mind can’t absorb the scale of misery in some cases is a reference to the fact that on some occasions, we might not be able to function if we truly understood the extent of pain and suffering in particular events.
- Right now, 180 Japanese technicians are risking their lives trying to repair the nuclear facility. They are leaders on the scale of Chesley Sullenberger; the question is whether they’ll be able to enjoy the success that marked Flight 1549. Regardless of how it turns out, they are heroes who should be remembered.
- It’s interesting to note the role of history with these 180 workers. In Japan they are being called modern-day samurais, invoking a historical image and memory that has a special place in Japanese life.
- The people of Japan have been remarkable in this incident. Their patience, restraint, self-control, and bravery give all of us a model for future events of a similar nature.
- The 1721 episode was not at all a case where an innovation was conceived, tried, and succeeded. It was messy, violent, and chaotic. It is a fascinating experience to explore and is one of my most popular case studies for clients. It shows the complexities and challenges of several leaders interacting in a high-pressure event with a major innovation in play.
- Have you ever written with a quill pen? I hadn’t until I shot the video. I’m amazed at how laborious and letter-by-letter it was. I can’t imagine how long it took to write or copy even the most common documents. Amazing. Also, I suspect people who wrote frequently had to have a near-permanent ink stain on their fingers. Finally, there is an odd sort of connection between you as the writer, you as the thinker behind the writing, and the process of dipping the quill in ink every minute or so and then scratching it across a sheet of paper. There is a definite unique feeling to it.
