{"id":22818,"date":"2019-05-09T14:45:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T21:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=22818"},"modified":"2019-05-10T07:38:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T14:38:02","slug":"the-shrewd-and-harmless-tempered-radical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-shrewd-and-harmless-tempered-radical\/","title":{"rendered":"The shrewd and harmless tempered radical"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Diane Zemke, in her book Being Smart About Congregational Change,<\/em> advances strategic and clear thinking around how one can influence change within a system. While her research was specifically focused on the local church context, it has high applicability to any organizational environment. In my case, with my focus on the changing landscapes within private family philanthropy, there were solid parallels. One caught my eye: the idea of the tempered radical.<\/p>\n

Tempered radicals are ones who exhibit the traits of maturation and grace. While radical in orientation \u2013 they are visionaries and dreamers \u2013 they also pragmatically recognize that to get from here to there is not possible without savvy, even political, skills in navigating organizational realities to pursue change together. \u00a0These radicals have moved beyond being those who tear everything down and start from scratch, to ones who will work within systems to incrementally move the organization towards a new reality.<\/p>\n

Zemke further elucidates:<\/p>\n

\u201cTempered radicals often appear as loyal company employees on the outside, yet are different internally, based on their conflicting values. These conflicting values form the foundation for conflicting identities since our value commitments help construct our identity. It is the struggle to enact these conflicting identities that is at the heart of tempered radicals\u2019 experience. Tempered radicals are not chameleons, exhibiting one identity here and another there. Nor do they lack integrity or authenticity. Indeed, their integrity and authenticity are revealed as they work to honor both identities simultaneously.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Tempered radicals are those change agents who are \u201cas shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Debra Meyerson, Consulting Professor at Stanford University Graduate School of Education, has also captured this idea and writes in the Stanford Social Innovation Review<\/em> about its applicability within corporate social responsibility systems. These large business environments have a historical culture focused on profitability. But to move business toward collective social responsibility one must begin on the fringes.<\/p>\n

Just like churches that have historic cultural patterns needing change, getting to the desired new culture in businesses will take time. Meyerson advises tempered radicals to start small. Incremental change is the way forward, and small changes inspire cultures to change because they:<\/p>\n