Let's Create a Culture of Courage

While I have spoken extensively about the importance of companies supporting DEI in the present, workforces will continue to evolve as the future arrives. In turn, we must incorporate a focus on making our work cultures more courageous. If we don’t have this emphasis, we’ll lose out on the innovation of the younger generation, and that’s a situation no organization wants to be in!

Some companies are preemptively shifting toward this culture of courage, offering events like “Fail Forward” sessions that encourage employees to openly share their failures and the lessons they learned from these experiences. In doing so, they create an environment that welcomes risk-taking and prioritizes celebrating innovation and bold choices over penalizing mistakes. After all, we have to keep in mind that investing in a culture of courage doesn’t mean mistakes will no longer happen! Instead, when people inevitably make mistakes, a courageous work culture emphasizes taking those mistakes in stride and learning from them for the better. The more we encourage employees to trust themselves and the more we create a space where failure does not equate to losing one’s job, the more likely we are to inspire innovation and achieve exciting accomplishments among our organization.

So, what existing models can we learn from to foster a culture of courage? Let’s walk through four key examples!

1. Canadian Automobile Association

We’re starting off with a different sort of organization than I usually invoke, but hear me out: the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) demonstrates a deep investment in creating a culture of courage through the use of what they call “recognition data.” In other words, CAA carefully attends to the challenges and successes of their employees, allowing them to positively embrace and reward employee innovation and risk-taking! They have both monetary benefits and Team Awards (e.g. a “Round of Applause” award), where this support of employee ingenuity and emphasis on not penalizing failure has led to decreased turnover. What’s more, CAA’s data specifically “show[s] turnover is the lowest for employees who have received awards from both their managers and their peers.” In other words, when an organization invests in a culture of courage that inspires mutual support between peers, employees are more likely not only to recognize one another’s accomplishments but to come together and develop potentially revolutionary innovations together—sounds like a win-win to me!

2. W.L. Gore & Associates

W.L. Gore is a fun model to learn from, in my opinion, because of its unconventional approach to organizational management. Gore has what’s known as a “lattice organization”—in other words, there are no “ranks” of employees, and there is no absolute, supreme career hierarchy. Any associate can speak to another as an equal, a commitment to courageous conversation and risk-taking reflected in the fact that all employees of Gore become shareholders.

Now, I’m not suggesting every company needs to switch over to this horizontal structure! Rather, we can take inspiration from Gore’s commitment to a culture of courage through their dedication to ensuring that no conversations or mistakes are ever shied away from. Everyone is on an equal playing field, meaning individual mistakes become broader lessons for everyone to learn from, and individual accomplishments become uplifted for the entire organization to celebrate. The benefits to this courageous approach are infinite, as each and every employee contains limitless creativity and innovation! As such, if we learn from Gore’s example and emphasize a level playing field and courageous communication, there’s no telling how far that will propel that success of our organization.

3. Patagonia

Ah, Patagonia—a company renowned for its emphasis on tending to the environment and being a steward of the planet. This company’s emphasis on a culture of courage is all but endless! I could talk about the fact that their “retention rate for mothers returning from maternity leave is 100 percent,” how they offer subsidized childcare and have childcare centers on-site, how “[i]f a breastfeeding mother needs to go on a business trip, the company pays for the mother, baby, and a nanny to travel for that trip,” how Patagonia thus gives their employees the opportunity to bring their full self to work—how Patagonia ensures their employees have the tools to make courageous decisions about their careers without sacrificing other elements of their lives. I could talk in-depth about this marvelous set-up and Patagonia’s clear support of allowing their employees to practice courageous behavior.

Instead, though, what I want to focus on here is how Patagonia commits to crafting a culture of courage to the fullest extent: investing in courage outside of the workplace. What do I mean by this? Well, if a Patagonia employee “‘has previously taken a nonviolent civil disobedience class and is subsequently arrested while peacefully protesting,’” such as protests in support of the environment, the organization will post their bail. While I certainly don’t expect every organization to switch to this level of commitment to a culture of courage off the bat, isn’t that an inspiring example to learn from? To trust the courage of their employees both within and outside of the workplace—how incredible!

4. Zappos

I want to conclude with Zappos because this organization offers an excellent example of investing in a culture of courage from as early as the hiring process. After all, demonstrating one’s commitment to courage must extend beyond employees who have “been there a while,” else newcomers become too fearful to embrace their individual ingenuity. Zappos offers dedicated training to new hires for its first week, but more crucially, they actively encourage these employees to reflect on how well they feel the position and work environment suit them. If these hires decide Zappos is not the right place for them, Zappos compensates them with $2,000 for their courage and honesty! While not every organization may implement this exact strategy, the example of Zappos is nonetheless crucial to learn from because of their emphasis on welcoming courageous behavior—behavior that may buck the status quo—from the moment employees are hired.

And there we have it! Four examples to learn from of companies demonstrating a clear commitment to crafting a culture of courage. I say we follow their footsteps and embrace the reality that failure is inevitable, mistakes are just opportunities, and success can only come after error—to do so, all we need is a little courage.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization. Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.