Want Courage? Find Your Conviction.

Petrichor Post: A Fresh Look at Organizational Performance

If we want to tap into courage and have the strength to stand up for and pursue what we believe in, we must find it within our convictions. It is through conviction we are compelled to act, to be courageous. Conviction is held, courage expressed. Conviction is internalized, courage externalized. These two work hand in hand, partnering to realize something powerful together, a gestalt, a means to realizing purpose.

On Thanksgiving Day, August 19, 2014, just months after the extremist organization from Northern Iraq and Syria known as ISIS/ISIL/Daesh began to terrorize Westerners using their own technologies, A Message to America was posted to YouTube. There we saw an American photojournalist, a man by the name of James Foley, on his knees with hands tied behind his back, staring into the camera that would soon film his execution. He knows this is his fate, that his life is soon to end. He wears a bright orange jumpsuit that stands in stark contrast to the light tan and blue of the desert colors behind him. In positional contrast, is one of James’ captors. Shrouded fully in black, he hovers, clearly visible in James’ periphery. The power balance initially seems clear. And then James begins to speak and we understand that the real strength is coming from somewhere deep within James, not outside of him. As James vocalizes the words he has been forced to say, his true communication is sent via subtle but powerful body language. He conveys a calm intensity, his conviction and faith manifested for his family and all to see and hear, beyond the words. In his eyes, his face, his neck. He emanates strength. He is stalwart. Is he courageous here? Or foolish for returning to Syria after having already been captured and held hostage once before? Whether one labels James’ actions as courageous or foolish is secondary, maybe even an indication of one's own depth of conviction. Instead, what lies at heart here, is the amazing pull and push of deep conviction, compelling James and countless others to sacrifice so much so dear, in order to honor.

Today’s Petrichor Post is about the power of conviction. It is written in honor of all Veterans and other brave individuals who have made incredible sacrifices to realize a goal, a dream, a better world. It is written for all who have held and have been compelled by conviction, for those who KNOW what matters most to them, and for those who consistently connect to that core in every action minute or grand. Integrity at its best. It is written in degrees of separation to each of us, we every-day human-beings who also strive to and who can and do act from a place of conviction. We, who also aspire to stand tall and act courageously in the face of adversity, fear, intimidation, and small mindedness.

The Power of Conviction

To start the conversation, I will make three points: First, courageous action is only and ever fueled by conviction. We would be hard-pressed to find courage without first engaging our conviction. Second, the greater one's conviction, the stronger, more profound, and more sustained the actions related to its fulfillment will be. Third, conviction is an internal experience made manifest through our behaviors and our actions. It is the act itself we label as courageous. It is the unseen power of our conviction, the "what happens on the inside" -away from the view of others, that serves as the catalyst for action. Conviction is the unsung hero in every courageous act.

Conviction, true conviction, craves to be acted on. It is nearly impossible to constrain action when fueled by deep conviction. In fact, if conviction is never brought to action, it would be questionable as to whether there was true conviction there at all. Maybe merely a wish or interest waiting to be fueled by another's courageous action. A great way to distinguish wish or developing conviction from full conviction can be found in reflection, reflecting on how much we think about the consequences of the action versus just "needing" to act. For instance, if you think of individuals who have acted from deep conviction, they rarely if ever consider whether their actions will have negative or positive consequences, only about their need to act. Another common characteristic of the courageous is how rarely if ever they define themselves as having acted from courage. And they're not denying so out of some false humility, but from a genuine perplexity, because the truth of the matter is, they HAD to act. Simon Sinek in his discussions with courageous individuals, found that every one of them he spoke with believed that another would have done exactly the same if the tables were turned. The bottom line here, is that it is this bit that is truly beautiful; this need to act ultimately for the safety and benefit of others. This blows me away, this unwavering commitment to justice and life that extends beyond our own. I can only hope and believe that I too in a life-or-death situation might spring from this well of connected humanity.

"Conviction is the unsung hero in every courageous act."

Let's bring this down to an everyday, every person, level, because most if not all of us take similar action motivated from our place of conviction too. I can call up many times when I have acted from a place of conviction. In every instance I have suffered both negative and positive consequences for doing so. I have failed to receive promotions, have been rejected from the popular crowd, and have even chosen to resign due to my unwillingness to turn away from what I believed was right for the betterment of the organization I served and the workforce supporting it. Politically detrimental? Absolutely. Authentic, empowered, and the right thing to do for the Complex and to advance our conception of safety and the health of the organization? With 100% conviction, I say yes. Because at the same time and every time I have acted from conviction, the consequences resulting from these experiences have granted me the opportunity to face my fears and forge new paths, ultimately advancing my career (after initially and often stalling it) and serving to strengthen my conviction and resilience. Politically detrimental? Absolutely. Authentic, empowered, and the right thing to do for the Complex and to advance our conception of safety and the health of the organization? With 100% conviction, I say yes. Without fail, I have walked away from this and every other comparable experience holding two opposite but equal thoughts as true: First, I reflected on how stupid these decisions were from a livelihood perspective. And first again, I was SO proud of myself for having the courage to stand up for what I knew was right. And on reflection now, in every circumstance where I acted from conviction, I have absolutely gained strength, resilience, and healthy pride for honoring myself in betterment of others (Sinek says this too - it's always in service of others).

I'm not intending to toot my own horn here. I do however want to point out that each day, every one of us has the opportunity to demonstrate small acts of strength based in our convictions. By reflecting on your own, by tapping into your conviction consciously, each of us has the ability to reinforce and strengthen resolve and resilience, and this in turn encourages further acts of courage down the road. More on this later.

The Courage of Conviction

As the phrase implies, we channel courage through our convictions. What we believe in and the strength of that belief fuels our action and the intensity and persistence of those actions. If you need proof of this, just consider the last time you tried to change a behavior or accomplish a goal that your "heart" wasn't into. How well did that work out? How fully did you apply yourself? Stay focused? Persist? Piano lessons come up for me. That effort lasted about a minute. But getting a Ph.D. in psychology so I could listen with eyes as well as ears, use my creative and quirky mind to help others grow and feel well about themselves, write and speak to convey my thoughts and genuine passion about and belief that humanity can exist within the organization and the nuclear complex? Now we're talking! $30K in student loans that took years to pay off? Water off a duck's back! No money to go out on the weekends or live in anything more than off-campus housing? Big deal! Standing up to senior managers who act in contrast to their words and inadvertently undermine their own credibility at the same time they place organizational objectives at risk? Probably a poor professional decision, but for me a necessary and correct action to take in support of the nuclear weapons complex and its workforce fulfilling its mission, so good for you! My point is, we take action and make sacrifices quite readily in order to honor our convictions. And the deeper our convictions, the more risk and sacrifice and commitment we will dedicate to honoring them. Risk is inherently bound to courage in an equivalent and proportional way, where the more risk involved with an act, the greater amount of courage required to face it. Similarly, courage and conviction are by nature perfectly proportional too, where one will assume risk equivalent only to the strength of one's conviction. The funny thing is, when one is acting from conviction, sacrifices are very often not experienced as sacrifices. Similarly, the risks inherent in courageous action are not perceived as courageous. In the eyes of conviction, these are merely acts of necessity.

Now, most of us don't say to ourselves, "I want to be courageous today. I think I'll take a stand." In fact brave and heroic men and women would deny they acted from a courageous place at all, and most definitely not in the moment. Instead they often shrug off attributions of bravery and tell us instead that they had no choice but to act. If you've checked out any of Simon Sinek's work on courage and leadership, you know that Simon has found that people who have put their lives on the line, consistently site their deep belief that others would have done the same for them. This courageousness comes from our conviction, our deeply held values and beliefs. And the stronger our convictions, the more risk we will face in order to protect them. The more intensely we hold our conviction, the easier it is to conjure up the courage, strength, and fortitude to act on it and to apply it to purpose.

Building Conviction

To identify and strengthen conviction, it is helpful for us to reflect on our convictions consciously, making them clear and sharp in our minds as well as our hearts. Take the time to think back on courageous and/or bold behaviors that you've demonstrated; when did you stand up for someone or something? Why, what stimulated your action? What conviction stood behind your behavior, empowering action? This conscious reflection builds resilience and reinforces our confidence, fortitude and faith that we - our convictions - are stronger than our fears. And this conscious reflection will bolster us to act with courage the next time we wish to or must stand up to injustice, tolerate discomfort, persist through hardship, question authority, or any other situation that runs risk of failure, rejection, or discomfort. The more conscious we are of our deepest beliefs and consequently can cherish them, the more psychological strength and fortitude we have in the face of risk. We become more risk-tolerant, more resilient, more caring of ourselves and our world around us.

The Role of Conviction in Organizational Safety and Performance

Let me first state my position: fundamentally, organizational safety equates to performance. They are intrinsically linked only but certainly when safety is considered in its totality, meaning with an eye on both operational and psychological safety (also intrinsically linked, by the way). The talk of organizational safety these days has evolved to one where employees are encouraged and needed to engage, stay focused, be inclusive, team and collaborate, think outside the box, dare to challenge thinking for the sake of innovation, and build resilience personally and for the organization. All of these acts fundamentally require our organizations to recruit and hire employees who are not only technically competent, but also clear on and committed to their convictions, and who are people of integrity. It also requires an organization with systems and infrastructure that support a workforce such as this. Ah, and therein lies the rub. Because organizations that on one hand purport to want and need an empowered workforce like that described above (particularly those in high hazard and high reliability industry), while on the other hand continue to exert ever more external controls in an effort to improve safety, wind up over-burdening the system and confusing, frustrating, and demoralizing staff. In essence, decision-makers who speak to the importance of empowerment but instead undermine employee conviction by making choices about what is best for them, tamp down drive, focus, enthusiasm and ironically add more risk not less, into the system.

The challenge here is one of reconciliation and integration: how do we bolster authentic, courageous action that builds a resilient, innovative, adaptive, and consequently successful enterprise BY transforming and reframing risk from enemy to advocate of safety? Rather than seeking co-existence, is it possible that they are actually one mutually supporting goal? For this to occur, safety and risk must be recast in different light. Fortunately, thanks to the good works and brilliant minds of safety experts like Schein, Dekker, Hollnagel, Edmondson, Carillo, and many others, we are recognizing that safety comprehensively (operational and psychological) is best accomplished by engaging employees in risk control, forcing if you will active participation in the environment, because it is theirs to manage, work, and live in. It is where we want them to apply their conviction every day, through courageous and empowered action, purposefully executed so safety reigns and productivity soars.