‘Courage, also known as bravery and fortitude, is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation.’
Wikipedia
There’s one word that really stands out for me in the Wikipedia definition of courage: uncertainty. In business, as in most aspects of life, we are expected to make the right choice, do the right thing, behave the right way. The flaw in this thinking is that it assumes there is a right way and a wrong way and nothing in between. Decision making is not always so clear cut. Often there may be several possibilities where the outcome isn’t certain either way, but the potential for moving beyond the status quo justifies the risk.
What is required is less judgement and more consideration of possibilities. Unfortunately creativity is deemed the preserve of people with long hair and Bench T-shirts, not the bed fellow of enhancing the bottom line. How do you introduce a culture of creative thinking into a company? I’ll ponder that one and get back to you. There are companies who value creativity and courage, to the point where they employ expensive business strategists and futurologists to do what they could be doing themselves. If only they were brave enough.
Courage can be defined as the ability to confront uncertainty. Creativity thrives on the uncertainty of an outcome to generate new ideas. Therefore, it can be said that creativity incites courage. Or put another way, creativity encourages people to be brave.
