Radical Change, The Quiet Way: Exemplar Essay To Follow

Leaders of any organization often feel that the most effective way to bring people to go to the direction that top management wants to them go to is to enact cultural change. This is easier said than done, of course. Over the years, it was established that there two ways to encourage cultural change. The first of the two ways was to implement drastic action. This involves more of a forceful nature of implementing cultural change. This results in a quick change but often leaves a trail of hurtful circumstances. In this approach, management forces change due to either low or high level of resources, major innovations in technology or when there is a change in the landscape where the organization belongs to. Another approach top used by top management to enact cultural change is by the method of evolutionary adaptation. This takes on more time to fully implement, but in most cases, is the more effective of the two approaches. This is where the utilization of tempered radicals occurs.
What are tempered radicals? Most often than not, we experience situations in the workplace where we cannot decide between keeping quiet or calling off someone or a scenario that goes against what we believe in or that we think is unfair or wrong. In these situations, if one calls management’s attention to correcting these mistakes, you risk others resenting you. But on the other hand, if you say or do nothing about, you end up resenting yourself for being too passive about it. So, what do you do now? Tempered radicals would do something, in their own quiet way, to challenge how things are currently being done, to try and change how they are done. Sometimes, the things that tempered radicals do are so under the radar that you cannot obviously take note of them. However, as time passes, once their actions sum up, you might notice that they were able to encourage others to do the same, and generally, enact a change in culture, without you knowing it.
Tempered radicals apply four different approaches to encourage change from grassroots level. The most personal approach would be disruptive self-expression. In this approach, change is encouraged by changing how others expect the norm to be. It is indirectly encouraging change by implementing a change in one’s behavior, eventually influencing others to do the same. The more people doing the same thing, the stronger the push for change will be. In this approach, the tempered radical’s own actions become the model for others to follow. Their actions do not result in immediate changes in the culture but creates impact enough to influence change in the long run.
Secondly, verbal jujitsu, redirects negativities in the work environment to becoming opportunities to which they can draw changes from. This approach requires a tremendous amount of self-control as one should wait for the proper timing to draw an opportunity out of a terrible situation. Often, persons implementing this approach would weight several responses in their mind and choose one that would debilitate without causing too much harm and at the same time being able to point out less obvious issues, in an effort to alleviate incorrect assumptions.
The third approach, verbal opportunism, recognizes an opportunity for change and acting upon it. In this approach, you should be able to identify quickly the chance to influence others to make the change and maximize these opportunities to create quick results or long term ones.
Lastly, strategic alliance building differs from the first three approaches because this requires a coalition to create change. The first three approaches only required for an individual to work on these changes. In the last approach, results become more noticeable faster as compared to when it is done by a sole individual. More forces work together to arrive at a common goal. Sometimes, tempered radicals go beyond their clout and gain the alliances of people on the other side of the issue. The opposition, who is the majority in our case, is persuaded to join their cause to gather more momentum for the change to occur. Tempered allies do not see the opposition as enemies, but rather as individuals who can be persuaded to become allies to support one’s goals.
There is no right or wrong approach to influence change. The leader wanting the change to happen must be able to identify which approach is much more suitable and effective to enact the changes he wants to happen. What is common among all these approaches is that the more people joining in on the cause, the stronger the force will be to influence change at the fastest possible time.