Risk management - Rhetoric vs. reality
When organisations think about taking on risks, it's a bit like this meme.. Too often a 'hairy chested Mad Max' approach to risk is espoused by leadership and manifested in corporate plans and glossies, describing teams bravely taking on risks, uncovering opportunities and maximising efficiencies.
Yet when rhetoric hits reality, you are inevitably left with the 'Dudes' (the do-ers) in the organisation, who dont feel quite so adventurous, as they are surrounded by rules, processes, lack of incentives and who avoid challenges that may derail their career ambitions. Risks are then left idle and ignored - or worse, dressed in pink bathrobes...
Risk management doesnt have to be like this... Think of it this way instead:
It is 'decision management' - i.e. making better decisions based on managing organisational risk
While brave words, or a structural framework of even more words, can be helpful, what matters is that those words assist the organisation to reach a consistent understanding of how risk is to be managed. Simplicity is often lost in myriads of detail.
It is about using 'decision management' to help drive behavioural change across the entire organisation. In other words, it's more about people than systems. Ongoing and regular discussions about risk are more important than filling out risk registers.
It's about a building and maintaining a workplace where everyone feels able to discuss risks affecting their workplace, or constructively challenge the views of others
Thinking about risk management in this way wont turn risk management into the English Premier League of corporate planning, but it can transform the way organisations think, plan and act in relation to risk...
And make such change sustainable...