We can gain some insight about the domains that desperately need some rebel energy by checking out the demographics of our Twitter followers at https://twitter.com/rebelsatwork?lang=en A strong plurality if not a majority work in the health industry. Check out this word cloud generated by followerwonk derived from our followers’ twitter bios.

Another large group of followers are government workers from all levels— state, local, regional and federal. Of course in many countries health workers are also government employees, most notably in the United Kingdom where the National Health Service has recently become interested in promoting positive change agents. By the way, here is a map showing the global reach of @rebelsatwork.

An interesting subset of our government followers are individuals who work for the US Intelligence Community. That’s where one half of @rebelsatwork learned their lessons, mainly me! Although I no longer hold any security clearances, I still attend the occasional intelligence-related conference and that’s where I was earlier this week, attending the 2019 GEOINT symposium, devoted to all forms of geospatial information and analysis. One of the more interesting panels, for example, dealt with using geospatial intelligence to help fight California forest fires.

But I digress. A highlight of the annual symposium is the presentation of a lifetime achievement award to a geospatial pioneer. This year’s awardee is Dr. Annette Krygiel, a woman who helped create modern geospatial analysis. She shared her most important best practice with the audience:

Humans solve problems or accomplish complex tasks by collaborating—by working together in teams.
My lesson learned is it can be beneficial, even NECESSARY, to employ teams that are composed using
diversity as an organizing criteria…think REBELS AND WILD CARDS.

(You can catch her comments here.)

After her talk, Dr. Krygiel told me she was going to order the book Rebels at Work, although it sounds to me that she could have written it. Just goes to show that society has always had and needed rebels. It seems to be a lesson that is in constant need of relearning.