Surely everyone has seen the viral and comedic posts on social media about how if you forget to take a pen to school you will ultimately have a poor quality of life: No pen? No notes. No notes? Poor revision. Poor revision? Bad grades. Bad grades? Bad job. Ect.
But, this microcosmic view of the impacts of a lack of stationary in the classroom is a great retrospective reflection on the nature of how little things can make a big difference. Sociologically speaking, catalysts can occur at seemingly random points of time and inspire immense social change. For example, the Stonewall Riots back in 1969s, headed by the victims of a police raid of a known gay bar in New York City, The Stonewall Inn. Famously, Marsha P Johnson was attributed for throwing the first brick during the fallout and subsequently evoking the riots. Or, more recently, murder of George Floyd inspiring a huge wave of Black Lives Matter protests worldwide to demand systematic change in policing to rectify institutionalised racism.
You may wonder what these two events have in common and it is simple: in both instances above, these actions inspired explosive change. In the case of Stonewall, the people who frequented The Stonewall Inn were fed up of facing discrimination by the police for their gender identities, gender presentation and their sexual orientations, often being treated with disrespect. The raid on The Stonewall Inn appeared to be the final nail in the coffin. The riots instigated the domino effect that would eventually lead to our current legislations to protect the LGBTQ+ community in the United States and the United Kingdom alike. Although, there is significant progress that still needs to be made, in recognising and protecting those in the LGBTQ+ community on a national and international scale, there has been significant social change in the wake of this event.
Similarly, the outcry after the viral video of George Floyd’s murder was shared online inspired protests on an international scale, bringing the Black Lives Matter movement back into the media’s attention. Protests in Floyd’s name further inspired individuals in other countries protest in the names of other victims of systemic racism, such as Breonna Taylor, who was murdered in her own home, during crossfire between her boyfriend, and police, that raided her home, in search of a suspect already in custody. Her killers were never charged with her murder, and instead were charged for the damage they caused to the property that missed her. Another example of a protest in another’s name, as part of the movement was the UK national protests for Belly Mujinga, who worked as part of TFL, and was spat at by a man who claimed to have coronavirus. She subsequently died of the illness. It was the increased traction of black lives matter protests on an international scale that lead to Derek Chauvin, the officer who murdered George Floyd, to be trialed for second-degree murder.
Social change is often subtle, opinions being swayed through generations as opposed to dramatic eye-opening events. But, these rapid-fire and fast-paced periods of momentous change demonstrate that every incident in the world is significant: little things can truly make a big difference.
For more on The Agile Works and social change you can read our articles: Change Is The Sky: Constant.
Based in London, U.K., and founded in 2016 by Arvind Mishra The Agile Works (www.TheAgileWorks.com), is an up-and-coming recruitment and Agile consulting company. Arvind is a Certified SAFe SPC and regularly delivers both private and public SAFe certification workshops.
He is a design thinking expert, Sr. enterprise, portfolio Agile Coach with over a decade of experience working as an Agile coach in diverse industries such as banking, pharma, retail, auto, oil, gas, consulting and government.
The Agile Works; a small team of three strive to help shape the leadership's mind-set and values in readiness for their business transformation journey challenges. With Arvind at the helm, we strive to provide you with the agility tools to make your company that can thrive, and not just survive.
To book a consultation, or for any enquiries, you can contact Arvind via the following email address: arvind@theagileworks.com
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