Saturday 15 June 2013

Courage, by Juliet Hancock


“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go”   T S Eliot

 Juliet is an independent Organisation Development Consultant and Coach with a particular interest in the role of values in the choices we make as individuals and how we engage with others.

When asked last August if I would be interested in writing some blogs for the Good Project, saying ‘yes’ felt quite courageous (or mad!) as I had never written a blog before.  And I am curious that I chose to write about courage – what do I know about that? At the time I was getting over an accident and feeling rather vulnerable and fearful about the future. Maybe I was looking for some courage myself, and because I also knew the situation I found myself in was also an opportunity –to grow and to risk doing something different in the future.

And then I realised that courage was at the heart of my work on organisation and personal values, including my own. The Latin root of the word values is ‘valor’, meaning strength and bravery. “In understanding our values we equip ourselves with a perennial source of motivation, focus and strength to achieve those things that matter most to us” says Michael Henderson in Finding True North.

Our values sit at the intersection of our experience of the outer world and our inner world. We need head, heart and bravery to defeat our fears and achieve what we are truly capable of. In the Wizard of Oz the Scarecrow, Tin man and Lion found all three to defeat the Wicked Witch of the West, and discovered that they already had these resources within themselves. What is it that prevents us all, and our organisations achieving their full potential to be the ‘best we can be’?

Our values drive our behaviour and paradoxically, because they are largely unconscious, may limit our choices and our potential. They inform our decision making and where we put our energy. Our values determine the choices e make about what we ‘have’; what we ‘do’ and ‘who we are’. As Maslow said, our values determine our ‘needs’ (food, shelter, physical health) and also for belonging and self-esteem. It may be the fear of losing these that hold us back:  ‘will I have enough money for the future?’; ‘will I make fool of myself? ‘will they like me?’; ‘will I fit in?’; ‘what if I fail?’ How many of us postpone or trade off what we really want in life to be ‘safe’?

But our values can also drive us forward. By having the courage to look at our fears and our aspirations ‘in the eye’ we can begin to address that potential gap referred to in Chandra McGowan’s excellent blog ‘the courage to be amazing’. Try Jackie Le Fevre’s ‘braveometer’ to see how brave you are now and want to be http://braverthanyouthink.co.uk/start.php.  Chris Johnston has some good tips for finding the courage we need in his book ‘Find your power’, to move from our comfort zone, through resistance to the ‘world of our dreams’.

By limiting our own courage and potential we also limit the courage and potential of others. The behaviour of leaders and managers becomes the culture of organisations. How often do we see people protecting themselves in case of blame; reinforcing practises they know need to change and saying why things can’t be done. Staffordshire Hospital and Barclays Bank and so many others. How long did it take for anyone to say ‘I got it wrong’ or to blow the whistle on others, and with what awful consequences on people’s lives.

Instead, how would it be to be the ‘best possible organisation on earth to work for?’ For three years Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones of London Business School have been investigating this question by asking hundreds of executives in surveys and in seminars all over the world to describe their ideal organisation. They found six common imperatives. Together they describe an organisation that operates at its fullest potential by allowing people to do their ‘best work’.

” In a nutshell, it’s a company where individual differences are nurtured; information is not suppressed or spun; the company adds value to employees, rather than merely extracting it from them; the organization stands for something meaningful; the work itself is intrinsically rewarding; and there are no stupid rules.  We call this “the organization of your dreams” (Harvard Business Review).    http://hbr.org/2013/05/creating-the-best-workplace-on-earth/ar/pr

At the heart of this dream organisation are some principles including ‘let me be myself’ ‘discover and magnify my strengths’ and ‘make my work meaningful’.

This to me feels like a yellow brick road worth following – personally and for those people and organisations we work with who are all striving to be the best they can be. I used to have a sticker in the back of my car – ‘dare to dream’. Now there is a challenge……….    

 

 

 

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