Tempered Radicals: Catalysts for Change in Organizations

1. Action and Case Research in Management and Organizational Contexts Action Research: The Realm of the Tempered Radical (TR)

2. Aims of this session • To understand the concept; • To reflect on the skills and contexts in which • tempered radicals work; • To consider who in your organisation might be • perceived as a tempered radical and how have • they made change happen.

3. Originator of TR A phrase coined by Debra Meyerson and key texts etc. tend to include her name, e.g. Meyerson, D., (2003). Tempered Radicals: how everyday leaders inspire change at work. Harvard Business School Press.

4. Characteristics of TRs TR’s “are people who want to succeed in their organizations yet want to live by their values or identities……They want to fit in and want to retain what makes them different. They want to rock the boat and they want to stay in it” (Meyerson,D., 2003:pxi). TR’s “are people who operate on a fault line. They are organizational insiders who contribute and succeed at their jobs. At the same time they are treated as outsiders because they represent ideals or agendas that are somehow at odds with the dominant culture” (Meyerson, D., 2003:5).

5. Characteristics of TRs Tempered: to know anger but to mitigate anger in order to use it to fuel actions. Toughened to become stronger and more action oriented. Radicals can be extreme and tend to depart from the usual but it can also mean to be relating to roots or fundamentals.

6. Characteristics of TRs Therefore tempered radicals may question fundamental principles or root assumptions but do so within the system and not by advocating extreme measures. They have different social identities from the majority and see those differences as cultural or philosophical and not a basis for exclusion.

7. How tempered radicals make a difference • Resisting change quietly and staying true to one’s ‘self’; • Turning personal threats into opportunities; • Broadening the impact through negotiation; • Leveraging small wins; • Organizing collective action.

8. How tempered radicals make a difference. Much change in organizations is incremental, adaptive, small local accommodations or changes that accumulate into something bigger. As action researchers how do you notice, identify, record these changes, these differences from the usual?

9. Reasons for tempered radicalism Why be a tempered radical? Is it not easier just to manage the general work challenges and not bother? The rewards for conformity are often many. Being a tempered radical creates an ambivalence towards the organisation to manage and tolerate. For some conformity is not an option it would be selling out of their self.

10. Reasons for tempered radicalism Others may not recognise themselves as tempered radicals, but continue to struggle with ambivalence and uncertain how to make that work for them. Those that do act can provoke learning, help people to think differently about situations, they can challenge current thinking about what is the usual, the normal, the tried and trusted.

11. Examples: A manager introduces flexible working in their department to accommodate individual valued employees without requesting permission to do so from outside or following the HR norms. An African-American who makes efforts to make her company or her part of the company more friendly to others like herself. White man who believes in family friendly working conditions and therefore questions or challenges the demands for 5.00pm meetings, for long distance travel, for over night stays.

12. Actions as tempered radicals: • Build relationships inside and outside the organisation • who share some of your identity. (Note many UK • organisations have Black Workers networks, Women's’ • network/group, etc). • Develop the discipline to manage heated emotions to fuel • your agenda. • (Meyerson, 2004)

13. Actions as tempered radicals: • Learn to state your case in ways that support your agenda but in language that is understood by the majority e.g. a ‘green technology sold on financial gain’ • Design behind the scenes actions and initiate conversations that connect with others of similar values to help ripple out the change. • (Meyerson, 2004)

14. Strategies: • Self expression. • Helping others within the organization. • Channelling and sharing information. • Recognizing choice: interactions are opportunities, silence is a choice, depersonalizing encounters. • Interrupting the momentum in discussion to prevent it becoming threatening/destructive. • Naming the issue (make its nature and consequences more transparent). • Correcting assumptions or actions (provide an explanation, rectify assumptions). • Diverting the response (take the interaction in a different direction). • Using humour (release tension). • Delaying a response (find a better time and place to address the issue). • Develop negotiation skills. • Recognize your own and others fears which keep them compliant. • Develop alternative actions.

15. Strategies continued: Creating small wins • Maintain a ‘blurry vision’ i.e. a vision for change that allows for multiple • specific outcomes and alternative paths, flexibility (Improvisation?). • 2. Create opportunities in the details. • Challenge your sense of organizational tolerance. Use small wins as a • way to push existing conventions and constraints outward. • 4. Scope and time your challenges wisely. • Design small wins to generate learning. Think of small wins as • experiments that probe conditions and help you and others learn.

16. References Meyerson, D., (2003). Tempered Radicals: how everyday leaders inspire change at work. Harvard Business School Press.