Author Archive
The Unknown Known
There are two things I know to be true: you can’t grow as an organisation without taking risk; and you can’t innovate as an organisation without taking risk. A degree of risk is not only healthy for organisations, it is essential. What this means is that we need a robust risk management framework that allows […]
Risk management is not a compliance activity
When consulting to an organisation, it frustrated me when I heard “thanks for developing our risk management framework – now we will pass the audit” or, “we are now compliant with the legislation”. Risk management is not a “tick the box” exercise and it should never be treated as a mere compliance requirement. I have […]
Some more thoughts on Safety Management
I went out on a limb the other day and blogged about zero harm not being achievable. Boy did it trigger significant controversy and opinion with some supporting what I said and others believing zero harm is achievable. I’m glad these blogs generate such strong opinions and discussion because they shine a light on issues […]
Am I vulnerable, under threat, or at risk?
I recently received a request to write a blog to clarify the difference between risk and vulnerability. In a perfect world risk would be looked at holistically and there would be no need for an explanation, but of course, we are still managing risk in silos – not holistically and it is from these silos […]
Zero harm is not achievable
“Do I believe in the concept of Zero Harm? Let’s just say I believe that nothing is impossible” – Dave Collins “What a strange sense of logic to fixate on the absence of something (injury) as a demonstration of the presence of something else (safety). Such a proposition misunderstands the dynamic of risk and being […]
Analysing Strategic Risks
I have previously written on the difference between strategic and operational risks. In that blog I highlighted the difference between the two as shown in the diagram below: I have been thinking recently whether, based on the difference between the two types of risk, we might also need a different approach to the analysis of […]
Do we need a risk matrix? – part 2
In the December 2018 newsletter I asked a simple question – do we need a risk matrix? In that blog I detailed the example of a water corporation that had assessed the risk of: unplanned release (loss of containment) of water from a dam as being Major (Consequence) and a Rare (Likelihood), which meant that, […]
Downstream/Unintended Consequences of Risk Minimisation Decisions
In January two Canadians lost their lives after mishaps with charity clothing bins. This brought the total deaths from misuse of clothing bins to four in the last five years which prompted the City of Vancouver to ban the use of the bins on private land. As reported in the Vancouver Sun: [The] decision came […]
Is this the un-mitigatable risk?
I, like many other strawberry lovers in Australia, was horrified when the first case of a needle found in a strawberry was reported in mid-September. It was quickly followed by another and then another. Early on, it seemed isolated to one farm and one type of fruit, with speculation of involvement by a disgruntled employee […]
Do we need a risk matrix?
Lately I have been thinking (dangerous I know); is the risk matrix truly useful to communicate the level of risk? For example, does a High Risk actually mean the risk is high? When we look at the psychology of risk, you can understand management being on tenterhooks when told there is a ‘High Risk here’ […]
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