Rule #1 of Rocking the Boat: Know Thyself

For many Americans, gainful employment is done as corporate work. While working for a corporation sounds like it would have additional job security, sometimes the hierarchical power-structures of American society also eases life inside a corporation. Therefore, if you do not fit the traditional mode of "Moderate-conservative, white, male, with a wife and children," life inside that corporate world becomes complicated and constraining.

Meme image based off of the webcomic Hyperbole and a Half

Debra Meyerson, a professor and radical at Stanford, wrote Rocking the Boat for this particular worklife situation. Gathering data from hundreds of people, Meyerson carefully constructed a book that speaks to the people in the middle of corporate life that do not fit the heternormative, white, male expectations. This book is entirely for people who wish to change things, but have no desire to leave the organization that they are in.

In Chapter Three, Meyerson outlines the ways that people did not sacrifice their identity to conform with the corporate culture. A gay man did not bring a beard, but instead brought his partner of many years to the corporate dinner party. A woman giving an important presentation bought a fancy new suit, but refused to take out her cornrows. In each of these examples, I was struck by the fact that the people knew what their boundaries were. The corporation would explicitly or subtly pressure the individuals to conform, and to a certain extent they were willing and happy to do so; yet, they also recognized when conforming would overwhelm a critical part of their identity. There were lines that they simply would not allow corporate culture to cross.

A classmate of mine, Lorraine Ceniceros, suggests that the most important part of religious leadership is that we need to "know ourselves." We need to have self-awareness of our own triggers, passions, and growing edges. To me, Rocking the Boat, gives examples of where that self-awareness is not just preventative, but also constructive. This is eye-opening and world changing. (More on this in the next blog).