The Crucial Role Of The Agitator
03.31.2008 | Chris BaileyAre you someone who sees the status quo inside your business and has an overwhelming desire to shake things up? Do you get frustrated by the often glacial pace of change and feel the need to speed it up? Do you exhibit a relentless and courageous ability to point out elephants of all sizes lurking in the room? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you are an Agitator. Don’t worry, that’s a good thing. If anything, organizations should appreciate the true agitators they have in their midst. Not quite sure? Read on…
What is an agitator? When you hear the term agitator get thrown around, it’s usually done in a pejorative sort of way. It gets easily confused with words like rabble-rouser and inciter. But the true agitator has a noble mission. Consider the agitators who fought for independence and equality. Or think of agitation as an act of nature: it’s agitation that creates the rare beauty of a true pearl. Here are some key qualities that define an agitator:
Principled
It’s crucial that you agitate with principled purpose. Else you’ll just be a whiner that no one takes seriously or an ornery crank that no one wants around. Remember to keep the ‘why’ behind your agitation firmly in your mind.
Tenacious
Being an agitator is can sometimes be about as comfortable as being dragged by a horse down a gravel road. It takes a steely determination to see the end result, believe it’s worth pursuing, and remain focused on getting there.
Flexible
But with tenacity comes a somewhat paradoxical commitment to flexibility – it’s a bend, don’t break mentality. I like Bob Sutton’s mantra of “strong opinions held loosely.” Just remember that always being an unyielding jerk will not only cost you allies, but credibility and influence down the road.
So, what are the benefits of agitation? What goodness do agitators bring to an organization? Here are just a couple of the benefits:
Disruption
The status quo is death to today’s companies. The current level of change isn’t going anywhere…actually disruption is the new norm. Now, most organizations talk a good game about not adhering to the status quo, but often what they say does not match what they do. The agitator rocks the boat (and flips it over when necessary). But an agitator is also emotionally connected with her or his surroundings. They know how to adjust organizational forces to keep the proper level of pressure.
Perspective
Ever been in a meeting where the communication barely skimmed the surface? The real root issues that needed to be addressed were being ignored? Noticed that a small herd elephants were hanging out in the corner of the room? An agitator calls bullshit on all of this and surfaces the things that need to be dealt with for the good of the organization.
Having an agitator at the senior executive level is fine. But what happens if you’re a manager and have an agitator on your team? Don’t be like 9 out of 10 managers and banish the agitator to the basement. Here are some suggestions:
Bring Them Closer
Integrate these individuals into the organization rather than push them further out. Listen carefully. Agitators are engaged folks who want to make a difference.
Get Okay With Discomfort
One of the complaints I hear most from managers about agitators is that they’re perceived as negative and combative. I always respond, “And what does this say about you?” This complaint usually stems from a manager’s unease with conflict and intense personalities.
Build A Culture Of Agitators
Finally, don’t make agitation a strange behavior, but bake it into your organizational DNA. Make it a prized characteristic and reward it accordingly. Agitators shouldn’t piss you off, it’s the silence, passive acceptance, and blind followership that infiltrates common organizational discussion that should get you hot…and worried. Francois Gossieaux at Emergence Marketing offers a very powerful reminder of the price organizations pay by not honoring agitators. He writes:
Most of us have been in organizations where it is politically unacceptable to speak openly about what is going wrong – only to see projects fail because of weak sponsorship, unreasonable constraints, unmotivated team members, or plain old politics. It is sort of ironic that while not speaking up will eventually kill the organization in which you work and thus your current job prospect – it is job preservation that drives this behavior.
What most organizations do not realize is that this is not based on individual behavior, but rather on social behavior. Fixing this problem will not happen by focusing on changing individual behavior first, but instead by changing the social norms that drive the social behavior – and that is not a trivial task.
So, what is your organization doing to encourage this crucial role of the agitator? Anyone have experiences to add? Or if you’re an agitator, any frustrations to share?
11 Responses to “The Crucial Role Of The Agitator”
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Hi Chris – thank you for expanding on my post. I like the idea of encouraging agitators, but unlike you create a changed culture where everyone can speak up I do not believe that individual agitators will be able to change much by themselves.
I was fired for being an agitator — just as you describe, I was considered intimidating and a whiner whose glass was half empty in a culture of mediocrity. I was also told to “lower my standards.” Being an agitator is a very risky position to take unless you are able to do it in a charming enough way that no one is threatened. I learned the hard way that my people skills and support within the organization were not good enough to take on this role, no matter how desperately it was needed. I ended up isolated and ultimately villified although even the boss who fired me praised my work very highly. It didn’t help that this was an organization where nearly every woman over 40 found it impossible to succeed.
Hi Francois, thanks for adding that extra emphasis on the need for a culture where everyone feels the freedom to speak. And there is a certain truth to the idea that individuals may not be able to change much by themselves. It’s certainly borne out by LearningResilience’s comment.
I do believe, though, that each of us has the power and ability to bring some measure of change to our organizations. Or at least believe that we have the choice to agitate. Once we feel locked down and silenced, we lose a critical part of our soul.
Oh yeah…I should also have added that success is never assured. Again, I appreciate your insight and addition here.
LearningResilience, it might seem like a pat response, but it sounds like who you are and that organization that sacked you were never going to be compatible. You felt a burning desire to challenge a system of mediocrity…I’ve been there and know what that feels like. I hope that you’ve managed to find your own greener pasture that is much more aligned with who you are and your purpose in life.
Thanks for your response. It hasn’t turned out that way yet. I suffered considerable harm to my confidence, career, life and finances. The organization, not surprisingly, felt the need to make me look wrong, and the industry/community is a hotbed of gossip and I became a very easy target. Health insurance issues mean that self-employment is not a long-term option for me. If I am lucky enough to find another decent job, you can be sure I’ll be locked down and silenced.
I think being an agitator can only work if that’s what you’re hired to do and given the authority to be, except in the most extraordinary of organizations.
Hi Chris,
So very true. I’m working on a decision-making presentation and I mention how it is essential to have a radical (what you call an agitator) in your group of decision-makers. “Yes” people everywhere will get you nowhere.
That being said, I have to confess that I tend to be an agitator at times. Unfortunately, people sometimes take my opinion personally when it is only meant to encourage debate with the end result being intended to uncover all possible alternatives in an effort to make the most informed decision possible.
Corporate culture can be fickle.
Cheers,
Steve
Yep, corporate culture can indeed be fickle…and hostile at times to agitation. LearningResilience and countless others have the scars to show for it.
We could also make an argument that agitators are a highly misunderstood breed of organizational characters.
I’d say that’s true. I’ve given this a lot of thought the last few days, as your post gave me some real insights into why my entire career life has been difficult,and gave me a framework for the dynamic that I had never been able to articulate.
I think an agitator may do better in an organization that really is mission-driven, so that the agitation factor can be channeled into fixing a cause or changing the world with and through the organization instead of trying to fix a dysfunctional internal corporate culture.
Blog post for eSight class 2
http://baileyworkplay.com/2008/03/31/the-crucial-role-of-the-agitator/
When I was working on my M. Ed a few years back several fellow students said that my questions helped their learning. One of them, a Boeing employee, mentioned that Boeing hires contrarians. Not economists, but people who speak truth to power. The organization wanted people around who were not just yea-sayers. Perhaps another similar concept is value engineering or value analysis. Then there is also the term change agent.
I was a City Council member for a small city for three years. I left when I moved from town. I was definitely an agitator, and in retrospect I could have been more selective in choosing my battles, and a little more collaborative. But I was not a good old boy. When I left several city employees said they had appreciated my being on the council and regretted that I was leaving. That may have appreciated me, but they didn’t agree with or support me overtly or covertly.
Being an agitator, or contrarian, change agent, or one who does value analysis is fine in an environment where that is supported. But for the individual, it can be a very painful, lonely and even short existence in an organization that doesn’t want to listen to the other side of the coin.
Can one only succeed if management openly supports differing opinions, or does the smart contrarian learn ways to present their arguments in such a way that managers want to take ownership of them? How does one speak truth to power without being bitter or negative? Why do so many bureaucracies begin programs that involve change by bringing in new people with no stature or credibility in the organization? I have been that person in three different positions. I was lucky to have counterparts in other offices, but it didn’t make the experience any easier.
Doubledubs, the anonymous author of Systematic HR (http://systematichr.com/?p=817) writes:
“Change agents usually need to come from the end user community. It’s hard for end users to trust someone they don’t know who is outside their organization. Therefore, a well respected and senior person within the end user community is usually a good bet…Selecting high-performing people who are already well respected within the company sends a clear signal that management takes the program seriously. ”
My experience with efforts at organizational change, or change in practices in the arena of environmental issues, is the direct opposite to the quote above.
How does an agitator or contrarian, become that person with organizational credibility without losing their independence to think for themselves.
fst, thank you for this wealth of insight that touches on the agitator as change agent. And perhaps more to the point…agitator as a person of influence. What seems to separate successful agitators from their less-than-successful counterparts (I’ve been in both groups as I think about it) is the degree of influence they have within the organization’s culture. I love the question you pose at the end:
That is one well worth pondering…I’ll likely pull this one out and dedicate a separate post to continue the dialogue.
Thanks again for sharing your insight and experiences. I hope to hear more from you soon.
[...] of the agitator but I couldn’t possible explain it as good as Chris does in his post, “The Crucial Role Of The Agitator“. Chris defines three key qualities of an agitator, which [...]