Radical Change, The Quiet Way — HBR Diary Notes

Habib Ahmed

Published in

productleadership

6 min readSep 9, 2019

Tempered radicals bear no banners; they sound no trumpets. Their ends are sweeping, but their means are mundane.

Who are Tempered Radicals?

The tempered radicals work quietly to challenge prevailing wisdom and gently provoke their organisational cultures to adapt.

The author called such change agents tempered radicals because they work to effect significant changes in moderate ways.

Tempered Radicals as Everyday Leaders

In the course of their daily actions and interactions, tempered radicals teach important lessons and inspire change. In so doing, they exercise a form of leadership within organisations that is less visible than traditional forms — but just as important.

To navigate between their personal beliefs and the surrounding cultures, tempered radicals draw principally on a spectrum of incremental approaches, including four described here.

Disruptive self-expression,
Verbal jujitsu,
Variable-term opportunism
Strategic alliance building

How Organisations Change?

Research has shown that organisations change primarily in two ways: through

Drastic action
Evolutionary adaptation.

In the drastic case, change is discontinuous and often forced on the organisation or mandated by top management in the wake of major technological innovations, by a scarcity or abundance of critical resources, or by sudden changes in the regulatory, legal, competitive, or political landscape. Under such circumstances, change may happen quickly and often involves significant pain.

Evolutionary change, by contrast, is gentle, incremental, decentralised, and over time produces a broad and lasting shift with less upheaval.

1. Disruptive Self-Expression

At the most tempered end of the change continuum is the kind of self-expression that quietly disrupts others’ expectations. Whether waged as a deliberate act of protest or merely as a personal demonstration of one’s values, disruptive self-expression in language, dress, office decor, or behaviour can slowly change the atmosphere at work.

Once people take notice of the expression, they begin to talk about it. Eventually, they may feel brave enough to try the same thing themselves. The more people who talk about the transgressive act or repeat it, the greater the cultural impact.

Even the smallest forms of disruptive self-expression can be exquisitely powerful.

Does leaving work at 6 pm or wearing lacy socks or cornrows force immediate change in the culture?

Of course not; such acts are too modest. But disruptive self-expression does do two important things. First, it reinforces the tempered radical’s sense of the importance of his or her convictions. These acts are self-affirming. Second, it pushes the status quo door slightly ajar by introducing an alternative modus operandi. Whether they are subtle, unspoken, and recognisable by only a few or vocal, visible, and noteworthy to many, such acts, in aggregation, can provoke real reform.

2. Verbal Jujitsu

Like most martial arts, jujitsu involves taking a force coming at you and redirecting it to change the situation. Employees who practice verbal jujitsu react to undesirable, demeaning statements or actions by turning them into opportunities for change that others will notice.

One form of verbal jujitsu involves calling attention to the opposition’s own rhetoric.
Managers can use verbal jujitsu to prevent talented employees, and their valuable contributions, from becoming inadvertently marginalised.

In practicing verbal jujitsu, one may need to display considerable self-control and emotional intelligence.

First, listen to and study the situation at hand while carefully calibrating the responses to disarm without harming. In addition, you should identify the underlying issues (sexual bias, the silencing of newcomers) without sounding accusatory and relieved unconscious tensions by voicing them. In so doing, you have initiated small but meaningful changes in your colleagues’ assumptions and behaviour.

3. Variable-Term Opportunism

Like jazz musicians, who build completely new musical experiences from old standards as they go along, tempered radicals must be creatively open to opportunity.

In the short-term, that means being prepared to capitalise on serendipitous circumstances;
in the long-term, it often means something more proactive.

Rich opportunities for reform can often appear suddenly

An investment manager in the audit department of a New York conglomerate, Chris Morgan made a habit of doing whatever he could to reduce waste. To save paper, for example, he would single-space his documents and put them in a smaller font before pressing the “Print” button, and he would use both sides of the paper.

One day, Chris noticed that the company cafeteria packaged its sandwiches in Styrofoam boxes that people opened and immediately tossed. He pulled the cafeteria manager aside. “Mary,” he said with a big smile, “those turkey-on-focaccia sandwiches look delicious today! I was wondering, though…would it be possible to wrap sandwiches only when people asked you to?” By making this very small change, Chris pointed out, the cafeteria would save substantially on packaging costs.

Chris gently rocked the boat by taking the following steps.

First, he picked low-hanging fruit, focusing on something that could be done easily and without causing a lot of stir.
Next, he attacked the problem not by criticising Mary’s judgment but by enrolling her in his agenda (praising her tempting sandwiches, then making a gentle suggestion).
Third, he illuminated the advantages of the proposed change by pointing out the benefits to the cafeteria. And he started a conversation that, through Mary, spread to the rest of the cafeteria staff.
Finally, he inspired others to action: Eventually, the cafeteria staff identified and eliminated 12 other wasteful practices.

Add up enough conversations and inspire enough people and, sooner or later, you get real change.

4. Strategic Alliance Building

So far, we have seen how tempered radicals, more or less working alone, can effect change. What happens when these individuals work with allies? Clearly, they gain a sense of legitimacy, access to resources and contacts, technical and task assistance, emotional support, and advice. But they gain much more — the power to move issues to the forefront more quickly and directly than they might by working alone.

When one enlists the help of like-minded, similarly tempered coworkers, the strategic alliance gains clout.

Tempered radicals understand that people who represent the majority perspective can be important allies in more subtle ways as well. In navigating the course between their desire to undo the status quo and the organizational requirements to uphold it, tempered radicals benefit from the advice of insiders who know just how hard to push.

Of course, tempered radicals know that not everyone is an ally, but they also know it’s pointless to see those who represent the status quo as enemies.

Conclusion Remarks!

Clearly, there is no one right way to effect change. What works for one individual under one set of circumstances may not work for others under different conditions.

Tempered radicals bear no banners; they sound no trumpets.

Their ends are sweeping, but their means are mundane.
They are firm in their commitments, yet flexible in the ways they fulfill them.
Their actions may be small but can spread like a virus.
They yearn for rapid change but trust in patience.
They often work individually yet pull people together.
Instead of stridently pressing their agendas, they start conversations. Rather than battling powerful foes, they seek powerful friends.
And in the face of setbacks, they keep going.
To do all this, tempered radicals understand revolutionary change for what it is — a phenomenon that can occur suddenly but more often than not requires time, commitment, and the patience to endure.