Courage #cindertoflame

Lions are symbolic of fierce courage, exhibiting strength and the ability to take charge. We will view courage from different angles then conclude with courage - as an essential prerequisite for major innovation.

I’ll begin with a personal story when I had to overcome fear and muster courage. During a family trip to the Canadian Rockies, I sought a memorable adventure. I booked a caving tour, under Grotto mountain in Canmore, Alberta. Fully attired (with coveralls, kneepads, gloves and helmets with headlamps), we used our harness and safety lanyard to rappel 18 metres (six stories) down into Rat’s Nest Cave. We squeezed, wiggled and slithered through small openings and often crawled through mud on all fours. Then came the Laundry Chute challenge: a very narrow tunnel, where you enter feet first and go down vertically - imagine being embedded in a rock core sample! I recall the guide telling us that there was a Y at the bottom and to ensure you shift toward the right for the exit. If you veer to the left, there would be no exit for almost a kilometer and you would be stuck on your back, with your entire body encased in limestone. I allowed my sons to go before me. Then, it was my turn. At the bottom of the Y, I asked them: “Can you see my feet near the exit?” They responded with a resounding: “No.” I realized that I must have slid to the left side of the Y. I felt panic. My instinct was to scream but realized that my fear would only reverberate within my ears (fully surrounded by solid rock). I decided to assume the momentum of a worm and wiggled - ever so slightly in slow motion - halfway back up the chute that was fortunately, at a slight angle to provide some leverage. I slid to the right, my sons spotted my feet and I triumphantly exited.

The context of my courage story is a vacation that resulted in greater thrill seeking than intended. Nevertheless, courage enabled me to maintain composure, grip some degree of calm and strategize a way out of a precarious predicament. If I was a coward or timid (dictionary opposites of courage), I wouldn’t have embarked upon (and paid) for this underground adventure. Ten years later, I located an article in the Calgary Herald (2016) entitled: “Tourist rescued from inside of a cave near Canmore after being stuck overnight”, and I shudder because that could’ve been me.

In business, entrepreneurs are known to exercise courage and I can share my lived experience launching a novel consulting business, Cinder to Flame. I fully understand how courage is connected to resilience, the ability to keep moving forward in anticipation of future success.

Some Corporations have positioned the high value of courage. At the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, I was a past member of an Employer Branding and Employee Value Proposition working group and we discussed UHN’s “courage lives here” tagline, a component of the corporate culture.

Innovation studies position courage as an essential prerequisite to entertain disruptive ideas and move into unknown territory – where major innovation resides. Findings suggest senior leaders need to exercise more courage by taking bigger risks, inviting disruption and navigating through ambiguity. Courage is at the heart of transformational leadership that enables a paradigm shift in thinking and action. It musters the strength to execute difficult decisions when implementing novel solutions to complex corporate challenges.

Cinder to Flame helps Corporations solve complex challenges with strategic services that energize people, fuel a healthy corporate culture and ignite major innovation.

Courage is one facet of a healthy corporate culture for major innovation.

When will your Corporation be ready to exercise the courage of a lion?

Delve deeper, explore the connection between courage, resilience, risk taking and failure: https://www.cindertoflame.ca/post/failure-a-transformative-opportunity

Here’s the link to UHN’s “courage lives here” page: https://www.uhn.ca/corporate/News/Pages/courage_lives_here.aspx

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