Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change

by Beth Comstock

To succeed in creating change, to not be picked off whenever you stick out your neck, you’ve got to act using the other side’s language and values. You’ve got to act from the inside, knowing their arguments better than they do. In other words, I had to learn how to speak and act GE. That meant learning to balance myself on an organizational fault line between uniqueness and belonging, between being someone who is not blinded by cultural assumptions and has the independence to question and provoke, and someone whose sight is credible because of her loyalty to (and performance in) that same culture. I would need to make myself into someone who belonged, yet was able to be independent enough to rebel without getting fired.