In the companies where I worked for many years, we also had courage as a corporate value. As a human resources manager, I wanted to bring the company’s values into everyday life and contribute to a good and inspiring working environment.

We took a number of steps to create a culture of trust characterized by openness and constructive interaction. From workshops to create a common understanding of what we mean in everyday life and what behaviors are conducive to this, to employee surveys, 360-degree feedback processes, and change agent programs. The many “dialogue-oriented” exchange formats have certainly contributed to the development of a more trusting and open corporate culture.

But have we, as an organization, become more courageous? Or did it depend on the individual actors and their leadership styles?

From the German book “Courageously on! Your Path to Good Work and Strong Leadership.” by Florence Marie Guesnet, I generated two insights.

Courage can be developed. And: Courage is overcoming fear and doubt.

This inspired me, as a convinced (and certified) user of Claes Janssen’s Four Rooms of Change, to use this helpful approach to work on a more systematic development of courage in organizations.

The use of Four Rooms is valuable from two perspectives: first, to develop courage as an individual, and second, as an organization.

Often we are left with appeals: “We need to be more courageous”, but the “How do we do that?

In order to make this more manageable, transparent and above all “measurable”, the Four Rooms approach offers a helpful package of theories, models and tools.

This is also necessary in a professional environment. If we are in a meeting where there is a constructive climate, where we feel comfortable and safe, where everyone can speak openly and no one is exposed, then courage is not necessary.

In situations where we feel uncomfortable, where we perceive something as unfair and offensive, or where decisions are made in a non-transparent way – then we need courage.

The Four Rooms help to locate oneself, or assist others in recognizing where they are, and assist in the journey back to inspiration or contentment.

As individuals, we are constantly moving through the Four Rooms, and if we can keep the doors open, we strengthen our ability to change, deal with fear and doubt, and become more courageous. Different strengths – but different challenges.

The rooms of denial (censorship) and confusion also reinforce each other, but unfortunately with negative effects. Leadership cultures are created in which opinions are not openly expressed, and fear and uncertainty prevail. And typical characteristics of the room of confusion are insecurity, disorientation, frustration – also recognizable in absenteeism and a high fluctuation rate. Now courageous action is needed to change things.

There are a number of indicators for each room. From a leadership perspective, these help to assess a team or an organization. But to determine this together and from different perspectives with the involvement of managers and employees creates a strengthening of the willingness or ability to change and requires: COURAGE. Tackling the issues that drive employees into censorship or confusion. From Four Rooms’ point of view, this can only be done with the participation of all people concerned.

Courageous action depends on many influencing factors: the management culture, the framework conditions and, of course, the various personalities. The results of courageous action are visible and tangible – decisions are made more quickly, new things are tried out, and “no” is clearly said sometimes. These are all visible results, but they are difficult to measure directly in causal terms.

What is measurable, however, is the extent to which the conditions for courageous action are in place. An analogy to gardening makes it clear: the condition of the soil can be analyzed and one can create the conditions for a good harvest. And this is how the pulse meter works. One can determine what spaces individuals are in and where there is a need for action in terms of clarity, goal setting and infrastructure. Working on this allows for a positive environment that conveys security.

CONCLUSION: In retrospect, the concept and tools of Janssen’s Model®: Four Rooms would have been very helpful to me in working on a new leadership culture and in implementing the corporate value “courage” in previous HR roles, in order to give managers pragmatic and action-oriented “tools” to work with – which incidentally also strengthens their personal ability to change.