Paul Revere: Revolutionary Transformation Agent?
"Listen, my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere"
Yeah, but what about Samuel Prescott and William Dawes?
Well, they rode that night too, but I guess their names didn't rhyme with "hear" so . . .
It doesn’t matter. The real value Paul Revere brought was communication and information gathering.
Paul Revere was a silversmith. This was a perfect trade because he worked with his hands, but his clients tended to be wealthy Bostonians. This put him in a position where he was comfortable and trusted on the docks, in the pubs, and hanging out with folks like John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
This made him a conduit for information, and a trusted messenger.
So even though he made that ride that night, that wasn't what pushed the movement and made him valuable. It was more a function of his being a connector of multiple networks that were important to connect.
Think about that. He was a silversmith. Not a military general, politician, or political philosopher, but a silversmith.
And a change agent whose value was incalculable.
Nobody gave him the role of a "Change Champion". He was a person who was a believer in the cause AND happened to be a connector of multiple networks. And that made him one of the crucial players in early Boston, bringing people along who were needed to effectuate a pretty significant transformation!
For more information about Paul Revere's role in the American Revolution checkout: Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett FIescher
For more information about the value of the loosely connected networks in driving transformation checkout: #Cascades by Greg Satell
#TransformationEnablement #OCM #LobsterSox
