Resource Management Innovations
Building Courage: A Recipe
Visitors to the blog or those who know or maybe had the misfortune to grow up with me know that I have a predisposition to process and mechanics. The how & why of what makes stuff work. Growing up I know I caused my dad no end of grief as many of my Christmas morning toys were in parts by Boxing Day … as I just had to understand how they did what they did. On many occasions it was a great learning experience (by about New Years Day) as the toys were usually back together … often times as not working better than they had out of the package. Typically with modification. I don’t know if we were the weird science predecessors … as all my friends seemed similarly wired, or if those were the kids who naturally gravitated to each other? I do know that was the dominant topic of dinner conversation when our families got together. ( “You mean your son does that too?” ) Some four decades later the nut hasn’t fallen too far from the tree. A screwdriver can normally be found within arm’s reach anywhere in our home. Certainly in the office.
I don’t think it is that much of leap that on entering the vocational world that my head & heart took me to Human Resources Management which was a logical point of entry into Organizational Development. Discerning the resource requirements of the enterprise then ensuring their deployment for today (production) and availability for tomorrow (production capability). The ‘human’ resources necessary to push the business plan forward it seems has always been the tricky bit. In my mind’s eye at least ... it seems a very short step sitting on a stool at my dad’s workbench trying to understand how something worked and could be made to go farther – faster to my days in HR Development.
Imagine the circus of information I found then on my entry into the Canadian Armed Forces … and trying to wrap my mind around the scope and scale of human performance (change) from point of entry to graduation. Have you ever thought about that? The very intentional Lego-like building process of taking a city kid … and through a process of what I can only compare to ‘functional decomposition & re-engineered re-assembly’ … can we graduate such exceptional men & women. Remember this is typically in the space of about 3-4 months depending on the country and element (land, air, sea) of service.
Notwithstanding all of our differences, the one common denominator I have discerned is courage. That was a characteristic I had no handle on whatsoever. Where does it come from? How is it established? How is it nurtured? How is it released? Can it be depleted? Can it be restored? … ever wonder about that?
I use my personal experience as a soldier as a working example I can best relate to, but let’s state for the record that you and I have found courage in the most unlikely individuals. I think our emergency first responders come easiest to mind. And, I have known teachers, nurses, and some neighborhood mom’s who would look danger in the eye and stare it down … before they relinquish their duty, responsibility … or dare we say instincts? So … where does that come from? Could you and I intentionally build it into our friends and family … and / or unintentionally deplete it? I think we can. Here is my hypothesis ... with a helpful beginning from dictionary.com:
cour•age
–noun
1. The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.
I think the only comment I would add here is … “the quality of mind or spirit that enables (we’ll come back to that word) a person to face difficulty, danger etc … in spite of … fear”. Fear as we know, can be crippling. But if we have been ‘enabled’ … could we respond, in spite of what is otherwise a logical, rational response to threatening stimuli?
The question that comes to mind easiest is how then do we intentionally enable, courage? If I knew that to be possible … wouldn’t that be part of my developmental plan for my children? My spouse? My staff? Wouldn’t I want them to be women and men of good courage?
The process I contend is one of building or depleting. Said another way it is a process of:
1) En-Couragement … the in-putting of it or the …
2) Dis-Couragement … the extracting of it.
What would those experiences be? Well by now … what I do know is that you and I have a bag of experiential data for both. Those folks who spoke courage into us … and the joy-suckers who made it their life’s missional agenda to extract it from us. Not to take away any of the science behind this … but distilled down to its elemental properties I think we would find something as simple and profound as self esteem.
My experience is going to be a bit out of the ordinary as I have had the opportunity to experience (not just) basic training … but went on to a one year training program after ‘basic’ in combat arms school to ready me for a NATO deployment to the 4th Canadian Mechanized Battle Group in Europe, led by a remarkable man who remains my hero to this day … Major-General Lewis MacKenzie. A solid, man of integrity. A soldier to his soldiers. I would have no trouble putting my life in his hands. Or his in mine. For a chronicle of how that happens (a memoir that reads like a diary) please take the time to read his book: PeaceKeeper, The Road to Sarajevo.
In there you will find the (very) practical theory to my hypothesis … about courage building. Its recipe and its process. Those lines on my resume that read of a time preparing for and serving in combat arms … leap off the page today. They seem to mean so much more to others than they do to me.
It is the stuff that makes good soldiers that I have tried to be so intentional in building into my son, my daughter and my wife. Into my staff and now my clients. Courage building which is presented as confidence. Never disrespectful, but neither apologetic.
So. What if? What if we were intentional in building courage into our sons and daughters? Into our workplace families & colleagues? Into our schools and houses of worship? Into our governments at all levels. What would that look like? I have a hint.
Every year while I served in Europe my Unit would take part in the celebration of the liberation of Holland. My Unit (4CMSU) would march on parade, back to those towns and villages our fathers and grandfathers took back from an occupying oppresive regime. I can recall the parade(s) as if it were yesterday. In fact it was over 30 years ago. I can recall the stride becoming a little firmer, the pipes sounding a little stronger the drums resonating a bit louder as we would round a corner on the main street … and we would hear the shouts … “Here come the Canadians!”
I think the ingredients of that recipe are resident within all of us. They do, like many chemical reactions need a ‘catalyst’. Something … maybe a person maybe a situation that would draw it out of us. But I contend it is resident within you.
What would our family, neighborhood, community … country or world look like … if we were intentional in building courage into each other. I don’t think it is ever too late … but even if only for the young ones coming behing us? What problems might we avoid? My hypothesis has developed nicely into a theory that at least in my own life experience has demonstrated itself as fact.
I like the idea of being surrounded by those women and men of ‘substance’ as my dad would say. Of courage and conviction standing with me, my children and their children. With yours.
Sound like a project we could take on?
Ready;
Rick @ RMI
Posted By: Rick Kneeshaw 2010/08/22
Categories: Ricks ~ Recipes