Dealing with nebulous risks and risk adaptation
I’d just got off a long distance bus ride in India, at the usual crowded chaotic celebration of life that is an Indian bus station. The bus had made its first stop in about 4 hours and we had 3 more...
View ArticleTalbot's Top Ten Tips for Presenting Risk Assessments
Bind it. Just this tip alone will probably improve your acceptance rate. When you’re happy with it and your boss, colleagues etc have had at least one review of it, bind it. It doesn’t matter whether...
View ArticleLessons from High Reliability Organizations (HRO's)
Some of the best research in the area of risk management comes from studies into an area known as high reliability organizations (HRO’s). HRO’s include organizations such as nuclear power plants,...
View ArticleIt's a question of values....
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”– Peter DruckerISO31000 (Section 3, Part A) says that risk management should create and protect value, and it’s true. Underlying this principle however,...
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It's not just about the numbers...
The previous article (It's a question of values) discussed how to tell if risk management is supporting organizational objectives. In the ideal world, it's not a difficult thing to do: metrics such as...
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Hands up if you love Swiss Cheese
I love Swiss cheese. And I’m not talking about the dairy comestible. In my view, there are better cheeses out there – but few better risk management concepts. Swiss-cheese theory is a beautifully...
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Different views for this blog...
Blogger recently started offering some different ways to view and read the articles created here so I thought I might share them with you.They all have some merit depending on your reading style but my...
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An example of a Risk Management Procedure
In case you haven't gathered, I'm a fan of straightforward documents. This is especially true of when you want people to take action. Fifty page procedures rarely get followed - or even read. The...
View ArticleHow to deal with complexity...
It's a question of context. We live in a complex world - so much so, that we could describe it as a world of complexity in a universe of uncertainty. But is this a good thing? If more uncertainty =...
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As High or Low As Reasonably Practicable (AHLARP)
We've been debating lately, how well the ALARP concept withstands scrutiny under the ISO31000 definition of risk? The answer - not very well. In a previous blog, we looked at the traditional view of...
View ArticleFirst Global Survey of ISO 31000 Gets Underway
The closing date for the first global survey of ISO 31000–Risk Management Principle and Guidelines has been extended to 30 November 2011 and I would STRONGLY encourage every risk management...
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Likelihood versus consequence management...
It often seems that as a species (and indeed as a society) that we spend most of our efforts on managing risks after they occur, rather than preventing them from happening. . The difference between...
View ArticleRisk Management Performance Benchmarking: Performance Benchmarking and...
Risk Management Performance Benchmarking: Performance Benchmarking and Attribution Bias One of the challenges for measuring the effectiveness of risk management (or any type of management system for...
View ArticleSo what what's so important that it's worth writing a whole book about?
If you have a specific issue or question that you’d like to address, please let me know but here's a short list of thoughts that are finding their way into the book.Let's start with the three most...
View ArticleEmotions Drive Risk Decisions
“Once you know what it is you want to be true, instinct is a very useful device for enabling you to know that it is.” Douglas Adams, The Hitchikers Guide to the GalaxyDespite our best intentions,...
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The Evolution of Risk Management...
It is sometimes tempting to respond to a risk or an incident, with a knee-jerk response by throwing time, money and effort at a quick fix. That’s entirely understandable, given that our risk...
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The role of the business case in risk management
Well-conceived and thoroughly researched business cases can play a pivotal role in improving the quality of organizational decision-making. The business case does not however, stand by itself as a risk...
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How to build a risk management framework
Section 4 of ISO31000 opens with the simple statement that "The success of risk management will depend on the effectiveness of the management framework providing the foundations and arrangements that...
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First International Conference on ISO 31000
If you're looking for a good excuse to visit Paris in the spring, I can think of few better excuses than the First International conference on the ISO 31000 Risk Management Standard.The conference will...
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Another view of a risk management framework
The previous blog entry on risk management frameworks, presented a relatively simple risk management framework but there are many ways to view risk and the interactions of the various elements...
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Blame it on the genes..
It looks like it's official! Risk preferences are central to any model of human decision making but researchers are increasingly able to identify a link between our genetic makeup and our risk taking...
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Until you do it, it’s still an unknown...
No matter how well you prepare, and how much you might think you understand a risk, there is a special category of risks which are worthy of the title..."Until you do it, it's still an unknown." One of...
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Risk Informed Decision Making
I recently spent 10 days holiday scuba diving and sailing around the Whitsunday islands with my partner and a couple of friends. Being the only one in the group with any sailing experience, I got the...
View ArticleWhat is Risk Management?
I love the simplicity and inclusiveness of the ISO 31000 definition of risk ("the effect of uncertainty on objectives") and think it is probably the best of a large number of alternatives for a...
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Three years to change perception of risk?
As individuals, we are prone to making poor risk decisions, yet it is potentially within our power to predict and calculate any number of risks, including murder, earthquakes, market crashes, or...
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