This document discusses nurturing courage in oneself and others. It covers topics like moral development, the four component model of morality, and developing moral courage. It suggests reflecting on past experiences, learning from moral exemplars, managing fear, and setting courage challenges to build motivation and reduce fear. Developing courage requires caring about values and having a sense of agency to affect situations. Making proactive moral decisions comes from having moral energy versus apathy.

1. Jackson Institute for Global Affairs
Courage in
Theory & Practice
Roz Savage

2. Main Points So Far
❖ Trajectory of courageous life vs average life
❖ Courage is not the absence of fear, but feeling the fear
and doing it anyway
❖ When Motivation > Fear => COURAGE
❖ Courage (and just about everything else) is a function of
the narratives we tell ourselves about who we are
❖ Developing courage is a dance between what we
choose and the challenges life gives us

3. Nurturing Courage
“Courage is what it takes to stand
up and speak; courage is also
what it takes to sit down and
listen.”
— Winston Churchill

4. Week 12: Nurturing Courage
❖ Summary of readings
❖ Courage in others
❖ Exercise in Experiential Inquiry
❖ Courage in ourselves - my suggestions

5. Moral Development
Pre-conventional: decisions based on
rewards and punishments (extrinsic)
Conventional: decisions based on
society’s expectations (extrinsic) and
respect for rules and laws (intrinsic)
Post-conventional: logical application of
universal principles of justice and rights,
despite legal or social implications (intrinsic)
Cognitive Moral Development
(Kohlberg)

6. Four Component Model
(Rest)
Moral
sensitivity:
noticing that a
situation is
moral + ability
to evaluate
options with
reference to
self and others
Moral
judgement:
ability to judge
which option is
most moral
Moral
motivation:
ability to
prioritise the
moral course
of action,
regardless of
possibly
detrimental
consequences
Moral
action:
implementing
the chosen
moral action

7. Moral Motivation (Kidder)
Principles/
Values
Danger
Persistence
Moral
Courage

8. Developing Resolve To Have Moral
Courage
❖ Reflection: journaling
❖ Moral exemplars: stories more effective than
description, as we identify with courageous character
(average of the 5 people we spend the most time with)
❖ Exhortation (?)

9. CODE (Lachman)
❖ Courage to be moral
❖ Obligations to honour (per Institute for Global Ethics):
❖ Honesty
❖ Respect
❖ Responsibility
❖ Fairness
❖ Compassion
❖ Danger to manage (what do I do to manage my fear?)
❖ Expression and action (what do I do to maintain my integrity?)

10. Confident Language
“We are going forward.
The march towards
freedom and justice is
irreversible.”

11. Week 12: Nurturing Courage
❖ Summary of readings
❖ Courage in others
❖ Exercise in Experiential Inquiry
❖ Courage in ourselves - my suggestions

12. Courage in Others
❖ Can courage be taught, or does it have to be learned?
❖ Role modelling/inspiring example
❖ Encourage risk-taking (safety to fail)
❖ Giving task challenges with feedback
❖ Mentoring/coaching
❖ Don’t over-protect

15. Week 12: Nurturing Courage
❖ Summary of readings
❖ Courage in others
❖ Exercise in Experiential Inquiry
❖ Courage in ourselves - my suggestions

16. Experiential Learning Theory
(Kolb)
❖ Concrete experience
❖ Reflecting on that experience
❖ Conceptualising abstractly about the experience
❖ Actively experimenting with new behaviours

17. Building Moral Muscle
❖ Emotional signalling
recognition
❖ Reflective pause
❖ Self-regulation
❖ Moral preparation

18. Balanced Experiential Inquiry
❖ Think back to a time when you experienced an ethical dilemma,
e.g. a conflict between what you knew you should do vs
pressures to do something different. There was a moral issue at
stake, and none of the options seemed particularly favourable.
❖ What was the ethical issue and what did you do?
❖ What were you thinking and feeling at the time?
❖ What supported (or limited) your ability to respond with moral
action?
❖ What can you learn from this experience?

19. Week 12: Nurturing Courage
❖ Summary of readings
❖ Courage in others
❖ Exercise in Experiential Inquiry
❖ Courage in ourselves - my suggestions

20. WHO ARE YOU?

21. >
IDENTITY CONFORMITY
VALUES COMPROMISE
PURPOSE RISK AVOIDANCE
MOTIVATION FEAR
COURAGE
SELF-DETERMINATION
ACTION
CHOICE

22. => COURAGE
WHE
N
MOTIVATION >FEAR

23. MOTIVATION

24. Motivation requires CARING:
- What do you care about?
- What values will you
uphold?
- What inspires your
stewardship?

25. Motivation requires AGENCY:
- Do you believe you can affect the
situation?
- If not, why not? (truth, or
assumption?)
- If you can’t change the situation,
can you change how you respond?
(Frankl)

26. Which of these do you want
to be?
PATIENCERELIEF vs
FUTURE SELFPRESENT SELF vs
PRO-SOCIALSELFISH vs
COLD SELF-CONTROLHOT IMPULSE vs
TASK-ORIENTEDEGO-ORIENTED vs

27. “Everything you think, say,
and do, declares to the world
[and yourself] Who You Are.”
— Neale Donald Walsh
“Life is the sum of your
choices.”
—Albert Camus
Retrospective Perspective

28. “We become just by
doing just acts,
temperate by doing
temperate acts, brave by
doing brave acts.”
—Aristotle
Retrospective Perspective

29. “Surprise yourself every
day with your own
courage.”
— Denholm Elliott
Retrospective Perspective

30. Set Courage Challenges

31. Courageous Decision-Making
Proactive Decisions
Reactive Decisions
Moral
Energy
Moral
Apathy

32. Proactive Decisions
Lifetime

33. Events
Patterns
Systemic Structures
Narratives

34. Reducing Fear (Lachman)
❖ Cognitive reframing
❖ Positive self-talk
❖ Evaluation of worst case scenario (decatastrophising)
❖ Self-soothing
❖ Breathing
❖ Emotional detachment
❖ Supportive belief system
❖ Journaling
❖ Sharing with a friend