dispatches from the new world of work

Mary Pennington, Ignaz Semmelweis,
And the "Last 98%"

Mary Pennington, IBD tells us (June 22), was known as the "Ice Lady." The Philadelphian saved countless lives via her successful campaigns for sanitary food practices in the early 1900s. Her engaging demeanor was such that she was time and again able to gain the support of both producers and distributors. (A Ph.D. chemist from Penn, remarkable in itself, she became the first woman employed by the USDA.)

Reading about Ms Pennington, I was reminded of the virtually opposite story of Ignaz Semmelweis, another pioneer in the field of sanitary conditions. While his work, and that of his peers, eventually had enormous impact, it fell flat for decades—in spite of the obviousness of his findings. Rather than making common cause with the doctors whose practices he was trying to alter (wash your hands), he instead did such things as writing letters to the press at times denouncing the docs, per Wikipedia, as "irresponsible murderers."

It is "just" a "Monday rant" from me reminding us, as the week begins, of that "all important last 98%" called implementation—and, of course, that implementation is a matter of respect and listening and carefully nurtured relationships 98% of the time.

Tom Peters posted this on 06/29/09.

Comments

TP - While I can totally understand what is meant here, there are also many examples in history where such language has directly changed a great many things, even if many years later. Such is often the case with mavericks and revolutionaries. But our approach is always worth considering. For this, I thank you.

Posted by Judith Ellis at July 1, 2009 5:46 AM

Tom , read the wiki article a bit more closely.
Ignaz's advice was not heeded because the theory
of germs had not been discovered yet.

Germs were discovered by the time Pennington rolled around.

Posted by thor at July 4, 2009 10:13 PM

thor, would you, however, agree that Semmelweis HAD provided empirical evidence that hand washing did reduce morbidity and mortality rates? Now, shift to modern day medicine for just a moment...

Read the actual inserts contained in many of the most popular, highly touted prescription drugs. Under "Mechanism of action" you will frequently find the words "... mechanism of action is not known..." So, the medical community is urging us to take a medication without fully understanding how it works -- they only know (based on what the scientific community tells them) are the effects of the drug. Flashback...

Semmelweis provided evidence that hand washing with a chlorine solution had very desirable benefits. The medical community rejected his claims. Why did they do so? Lack of evidence? He gave them that. Lack of concrete explanation as to WHY hand washing reduced morbidity and mortality? That's possible, but that would mean that the "logic" used in decision making among the medical profession has shifted from "skepticism" in his day to "whatever you say... we'll accept it" in our day. I don't think that's highly likely.

So what is left to be the demise of Semmwelweis's efforts? "Politics" might be the right word. Or perhaps "selling." He alienated the medical community with his tactics and thus slammed the door on any possibility of having his ideas gain widespread acceptance or even cautious consideration.

A different but similar thought: scientists didn't reject the theory of "atoms" simply because nobody could explain what neutrons, protons, and electrons were in turn made out of. We didn't know much of anything about quantum physics in the '60's, but we got to the moon and back, didn't we? There are times when all you know is "A" leads to "C," even though you're still trying to figure out what the heck "B" stands for in the A > B> C logic.

Semmelweis was clearly right in his claims. But clearly wrong when it came to "people skills."

Posted by Dan Gunter at July 5, 2009 3:07 PM

Pennington had an easy sales job.
Germs were a known entity and she had pictures
of those germs -

" To convince Philadelphia's ice cream vendors of the early 1900s that their equipment was crawling with contagions, the chemist showed them slides of specimens from sterilized and unsterilized ice cream buckets."

Before Semmelweis alienated anyone, he was fired for suggesting the idea that dirty hands had anything to do with it.

Posted by thor at July 5, 2009 6:36 PM