Is this risky enough? The modern risk manager says.
This question usually sits high in many our Viral Change™ [1] programmes. As a behaviour, it is something you ask yourself and ask the team members, or the group.
Risk management has always been portrayed as something focused on decreasing risk, a preventive measure, a safety insurance. But today, the real risk is not to be risky enough.
If something has no risk, I would doubt it has high value. I am talking big strategies and small strategies. Both.
The first time I used the question, and tried to influence its use in an organization, a few moons ago, people thought it was a grammar mistake. Today, people accept far more that a strategy, big S, small s, that has not enough risk built in, is probably a bad strategy.
What we try to force in Viral Change™ is the habit of the questioning, not a particular answer. It is the discipline of asking. The answer may be a ten second one.
Standard and predictable push back often comes from places such as manufacturing (‘do you really want me to increase the risk?’) or a regulated function in say, pharmaceuticals, or financial services. It’s a natural reaction, but it misses the point. Nobody suggests suicide or even a bit of self harm.
Still, zero risk, or super controlled risk, will be replaced by the robots. Which you may say, it’s not a bad idea. The modern, still human, risk manager is not somebody tasked with the goal of decreasing risk but to ensure that it has enough of it.
I took no risks, is a greatest epitaph.