Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work

Author - Debra E. Meyerson ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Harvard Business School Press was reviewed on 6-Nov-2008.

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1) Hardcover Book Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work by Harvard Business School Press. This is an important book for you to read if your gender, ethnicity, or lifestyle makes you an outsider in your workplace. Debra Meyerson gives examples of how employees have successfully taken small steps to change their companies so they are accepted and their voices are heard.¤

2) Hardcover Book Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work by Harvard Business School Press. First, let me start by saying that I liked this book and have been recommending it to others. As a "tempered radical" I wish that I had read this book early in my career. I had the wrong impression that hard work and results were enough as long as there were no bodies along the way. Young, naïve, and idealistic. Consequently, I am recommending this book to people starting their careers so that they get the reality of work as well as to others who just do not get that their approach is a major irritant to the powers that be.

I also liked this book because the author used her premise to package her ideas so that her tempered radicalism around race, gender, and other legally protected groups could be better heard by others. I came from academia too (and even received my PhD from Michigan where she had an early appointment in her career) but left that environment because of the oppression of free thinking and any kind of difference. This background added to my wish that this book had been around 10 years ago. I might have better succeeded in that environment if I had had this framework from which to work.

Although I like this book, I did not give the book 4 or 5 stars because the best of her book and the most important aspect of her premise was saved until last - the downside of the "tempered" approach. I do believe that revolutionary results can be achieved by evolutionary steps - small steps can achieve great things as they add up without the major heartburn or resistance that a revolution can cause. However, maybe evolution is not the best means to the ends and that cannot be decided until one decides whom they are and what they are about and decide whether tempered or full scale radicalism is what they want to do. This is a choice and is worthy of exposing at the beginning of the book. So although I may have succeeded in academia if I had had her premise from which to work, I would not have been happy because I would not have been true to me and the essence of who I was or am.

Evolution vs. revolution. To choose one must first know what one is willing to give up.¤

3) Hardcover Book Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work by Harvard Business School Press. Many of us work in places where we have a vision for how things could be better -- how we could work differently, treat people more respectfully, act on our values. If only, we think -- we could do something different--then we would really feel good about ourselves and proud about the places we work. This book inspires you to lead that change, to act on your vision. In these times when the impulse is to hunker down and just do our jobs, Meyerson gives us role models of people who have been everyday heroes, leading change that made their organizations better for everybody.¤

4) Hardcover Book Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work by Harvard Business School Press. Meyerson´s wonderful book has many virtues, it is well-written, it is well-researched, and it has diverse and lively examples. Best of all, it shows that leadership is not something that is reserved for the most senior managers in an organization, but rather something that can be done by anyone. Another great virtue is that it shows how to make a difference in a company without selling out or faking it. It should be required reading for everyone before they enter the workforce. Companies would make more money, treat their people better, and be filled with more joy and less fear if leaders at all levels followed her wise advice, and adopted the spirited, but constructive, attituide that exudes from this fine book.¤

5) Hardcover Book Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work by Harvard Business School Press. This was a great read. This book really helped me make sense of some of my struggles at work. Events that used to fill me with anger and frustration don´t anymore. I can now look at my work situation in a new light, and react to events in a completely new way. Knowing I´m not the only one who feels like I don´t "fit in" has been a real help. In fact, it´s been interesting seeing how I and other tempered radicals DO make a difference in our company.

I strongly recommend this book!¤

6) Hardcover Book Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work by Harvard Business School Press. Nearly all of us feel at odds with the organizations we work for at one time or another. Managers who are also parents struggle to succeed - and be there for their families - in companies that don´t offer flextime. Women and people of color want to make their organizations better for others like themselves - without limiting their own career paths. Environmentally conscious workers seek to act on their values and climb the executive ladder at firms more concerned with profits than pollution. While many who don´t ´fit in´ with the corporate culture choose to assimilate or leave, "Tempered Radicals" offers an inspiring alternative. In this provocative book, Debra Meyerson argues that this tension-between expressing our ´whole selves´ and building careers in companies that leave little room for differences-can pave the way for learning, leadership, and positive change in organizations. Based on fifteen years of research and observation, "Tempered Radicals" reveals that adaptive, diverse, family-friendly, and socially responsible workplaces are built not by revolutionaries but by those she calls ´tempered radicals´ - people who successfully walk the tightrope between conformity and rebellion. Whereas ´untempered´ radicals use drama and heroics to effect change, these individuals work toward transformational ends with incremental means; whereas radicals lead episodically, tempered radicals lead every day - with conviction, patience, and courage. Through stories of tempered radicals from doctors to teachers to CEOs to entrepreneurs, Meyerson illustrates how these ´everyday leaders´ stick to their values, assert their agendas, and provoke learning and change without jeopardizing hard-won careers. Whether one´s difference stems from race, gender, sexual orientation, values, beliefs, or social perspectives, this book presents a spectrum of effective responses to the pressure to conform that range from resisting quietly to leveraging ´small wins´ to mobilizing others in legitimate but powerful ways. Putting self-realization and change within everyone´s reach, this book shows how to turn threats to our identities into opportunities to make a positive difference in our companies and in the world. Debra E.Meyerson is visiting Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University´s Graduate School of Business, and at the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization within Stanford´s School of Engineering. She is also affiliated faculty at the Center for Gender in Organizations at the Simmons Graduate School of Management. She lives in Northern California.¤

7) Hardcover Book Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work by Harvard Business School Press. "Tempered radicals" may not sound like the type to start revolutions or topple corrupt governments, but in the corporate world, it is often these quiet change advocates that get the ball rolling and policies changing. In her thoughtful study of employees whose differences place them outside the mainstream organizational culture, Debra Meyerson uses this term for those who want to succeed in their organizations without compromising their ideological beliefs and personal lives.

People who hope to "fit in without selling out" operate on a fault line, says Meyerson. While contributing to their companies´ success, they support agendas that are often at odds with the dominant culture. This can involve their social identities, such as race, gender, or sexual orientation, or their philosophical values and beliefs, such as a concern for social justice, environmental sustainability, or family-friendly working conditions. They are not radicals in the sense that they want to enact a marked departure from the traditional, but tempered radicals in that they both challenge and uphold the status quo, working "within systems, not against them." Seeking to map the space between conformity and extreme radicalism, Meyerson conducted in-depth interviews with almost 200 people in three very different organizations (though both interviewees and companies were given pseudonyms, the companies are easily identifiable). The result is an insightful look at the way these people effect change, including the varieties of ways to stay true to oneself (through psychological, self-expressive, and behind-the-scenes resistance), how to leverage small wins, and how to organize collective action. There´s also a lengthy chapter on the difficulties these tempered radicals face, from the psychological stress of constantly straddling a duality to the incremental lures of co-optation. Having taught in MBA programs at both the University of Michigan and Stanford University, Meyerson is an accomplished business professor; this book shows her to be a methodical researcher, sensitive interpreter of results, and well-organized and fluid writer, as well. Tempered Radicals is sure to be a beacon of inspiration for those wanting to make a difference from within and an inspiration to those who might have assumed that changing one´s environment means changing one´s job. --S. Ketchum¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 4-Dec-2008, 08758490599780875849058, 180-590-131-801-711-561-8

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