So it is for Debra Meyerson at Stanford. She has taught at the business school on and off since 1994, and now has made her home in California with her husband and three children. She still thinks of herself as an outsider at this elite but conservative academic institution -- a status confirmed by her ongoing work at Simmons Graduate School of Management, in Boston, where she is a professor of management. Simmons is certainly an ideologically more welcoming place for her.

It's important for Meyerson, professionally and personally, to stay on the organizational margin. Yet she also recognizes that, on some level, Stanford has accepted her. It wants to have her and her intellectual radicalism around the joint. It recognizes, perhaps, the longevity that accrues to institutions with a greater diversity of ideas. Stanford is better for the conflicted experience. So, perhaps, is she.

Keith H. Hammonds (khammonds@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior editor based in New York. Contact Debra Meyerson by email (debram@leland.stanford.edu).

Sidebar: Tips for Tempered Radicals

Professor Debra Meyerson has spent more than a decade studying how real grassroots leaders make a difference in their organizations. Her forthcoming book, tentatively titled Tempered Radicals, will document her findings and offer case studies of the hard work of radical change. Here is a short course on some of her insights.

1. Seek small wins. Bringing about deep-seated cultural change in a large organization is a massive proposition -- and an enormous, long-term challenge. Better to break the problem up into smaller, more manageable pieces than to pretend that you can tackle it all at once. Leaders can experiment with these smaller efforts to unearth resources, allies, and potential sources of resistance.
   Smaller efforts also foster less fear and mistrust among peers and superiors. A string of small wins is usually more palatable to the organization than is an attempt at wholesale change.
2. Act locally and authentically. Change doesn't always come from an explicit effort to make change -- and it rarely comes about at the urging of outside consultants or as a result of bloodless strategic plans. Tempered radicals often act solely from an urge to remain true to their own ideals; their local actions can unintentionally spark broader results.
   Take this modest example: An African-American employee refused a superior's request that she unbraid her hair for a client meeting. Her immediate boss congratulated her for her courage, and then congratulated the entire organization for expanding its image of professionalism. That small gesture, made out of personal belief, sent a large and powerful signal.
3. Speak the language. Often, people in organizations accept change more easily when it's expressed in terms that they can relate to both personally and professionally. A diversity effort, for example, may resonate louder for corporate managers if they grasp the business implications of the initiative. Before pitching a "fair trade" strategy that would require her company to pay higher prices to its suppliers, the Body Shop's Jacqui MacDonald made sure that she understood the cost implications for purchasing managers.
4. Build affiliations. Radicalism can be isolating. Effective leaders develop networks of people outside (and sometimes inside) their organizations who can provide information, resources, emotional support, and empathy. Michael V. Littlejohn at IBM maintains three such networks: his family, a circle of close friends in similar roles, and a group of fellow radicals in the company. "You can't survive unless you have that support system," he says.