Tempered Radical

In this era of unavoidable rapid change, economic globalization, hyper-compression and ambiguity, the role of the tempered radical is essential. Tempered radicals are self-described as organizational insiders who have regular jobs in an organization and want to contribute and succeed but, at the same time, are treated as outsiders because they represent ideals, agendas, values or even identities that are somehow at odds with the dominant culture. Their stance as outside insiders can be a disturbing force, shifting organizations in the direction of incremental change. Shaking things up is their modus operandi, with a penchant for making change from within organizations. In effect, tempered radicals are the change makers who put to meaningful use the methods of action research.

Tempered radicals favour action, the type of action that represents their values and beliefs and the difference that makes them who they are and how they contribute to their organizations. Action research and its varied methods privilege moment-to-moment inquiry in action. The courageous stance of the tempered radical to invoke and initiate such processes is essential. Action research methods interweave first, second and third person spaces. The subjective first person experience focuses on self-awareness and is important because the change leader must be authentic and wholly present to be effective. In addition, the intersubjective or second person space of interpersonal communication and interactions emerges as the tempered radical works with a team to enact a change in the system. Finally, the objective third person space which enables the change leader to see the system in its totality, to envision and create impacts and observable outcomes of action, is necessary to ensure that the vision driving the change is realized. Each of these enables tempered radicals to maintain their curiosity about the intentional actions that may lead to sustainable organizational transformation over time.

Tempered radicals are people who operate deep within big companies, well beneath the cultural radar, who are a part of the organization as professional irritants, employing many different styles and strategies. They work to slowly change the rules. Action research requires advocates who are willing to hold steady in the face of uncertainty and inquire into potential pathways for action, direction and resource recruitment. Tempered radicals who employ the strategies of action research, such as reflection, deep inquiry and dexterity, in speaking the unspeakable have two special capacities. The first is their capacity to tentatively fit the context they find themselves in while, at the same time, shaping and reshaping themselves to remain within that context and make change. The second capacity is their ability to live in the paradox of change making. Such curious, tempered agents of change have the capacity to endure a state of ambivalence while small shifts take place within an organizational system. Their capacity to remain curious rather than to prematurely seek resolutions to systemic challenges or organizational [Page 773]conundrums makes them excellent researchers who seek the knowledge that supports meaningful transformative action.

At the heart of the continuum of action research inquiry methods is the assumption that understanding and improving the human condition requires approaches that validate knowledge that comes from within and throughout the system as well as everyone's learning. Action research democratizes the processes of human inquiry as a practice of learning accessible by all adults within systems. Democratizing the process of together making change demands three capacities from the tempered radical: (1) to be an outsider within; (2) to be critical of the status quo while, at the same time, critiquing untempered radical change and (3) to be an advocate both of the status quo when the system is not ripe and of deep change when the system is ready.

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