Lumen’s turnaround started with one decision: bet on courage

Challenge

A culture conditioned to protect the past.

Today, Lumen is building the trusted network for AI, combining world-class physical infrastructure, a programmable network, and a rapidly expanding connected ecosystem. But in just 2022, Lumen was at a critical inflection point. The company and its culture had spent years in survival mode — weighed down by billions in debt and a mindset of playing not to lose. Transformation could only move as fast as its leaders were able to go.

Solution

A lasting foundation built on courage.

Lumen didn’t just invest in leadership development; it reset how leadership happens. Through an organization-wide transformation starting in and championed by the most senior executives, leaders built the trust to have hard conversations, the clarity to make bold decisions, and the accountability to follow through. Powered by Brené Brown, PhD’s empirically based Dare to Lead courage-building program and BetterUp’s Human Transformation Platform, those behaviors scaled across the organization and became part of Lumen’s winning culture.

Lasting transformation starts with people. When organizations invest in their talent, build a culture of learning, and empower teams to embrace change, they create the conditions not only to adapt, but to lead. That’s how meaningful transformation takes hold and delivers results.

— Kate Johnson

Chief Executive Officer, Lumen Technologies

When courage scales,  so does everything else — and growth follows.

Lumen’s culture had spent years cautious, reactive, and conditioned to protect the past. When Kate Johnson joined as CEO in 2022 and brought in Ana White as EVP, Chief People Officer, they made a deliberate bet on courage as the path to transformation. Partnering first with Brené Brown to build a cultural infrastructure grounded in the Dare to Lead courage frameworks, Lumen established a shared language for trust and daring leadership across the executive team and thousands of employees. Then with the Center for Daring Leadership, a partnership launched between BetterUp and Brené in 2024, that foundation was deepened through a combination of coaching, group experiences, and AI-supported learning.

Among Lumen's VP+ population:

12 %

increase in courage*

13 %

increase in team performance*

18 %

increase in locus of control*

*Growth is based on matched Whole Person Model (WPM) and Daring Leadership Assessment (DLA) baseline and reflection points from VP+ leaders at Lumen.

Leaders are now surfacing interference earlier — unclear priorities, decision bottlenecks, competing demands — instead of working around it. You can’t solve what you can't see.

— Ana White

EVP, Chief People and AI Enablement Officer, Lumen Technologies

Watch our latest webinar featuring Ana

Building a playing to win mindset at every level.

Lumen’s transformation was designed to spread the same way culture does: through leaders. Senior executives went first, immersing themselves in Dare to Lead experiences and executive coaching to build a shared language for courage, trust, clarity, and accountability. From there, the work moved into the leader layers closest to execution, where directors strengthened those skills through guided small groups, workshops, relevant content, and an always-on Dare to Lead AI coach. Self-paced learning then extended that foundation across the organization, making the language of courageous leadership accessible to every people leader and available to every employee. Over time, Dare to Lead became more than a leadership program. It became the way Lumenaries build trust, navigate hard conversations, and lead the culture forward every day.

Proven at scale.
Now building what's next.

At Lumen, living the work became a leadership expectation. Dare to Lead was embedded into the company’s cultural behaviors, performance cycles, and every new leader's onboarding. Courage wasn't confined to workshops — it became part of how leaders were expected to lead. Today, 90% of survey respondents say their manager's behavior aligns with Lumen’s defined cultural behaviors. And, the results speak beyond culture: the company’s strategic revenue now exceeds 53% of its total revenue — for the first time in its company’s history.

The impact extends beyond the organization, shaping how customers, partners, analysts, and investors experience Lumen in its next chapter: building AI literacy and delivering on its promise to be the trusted network for AI.

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