Ok, I'm going to try to sustain the same passion from our email dialogue yesterday in crafting my response. No cute circular graphs, pretty pictures of mountains, and no throwing Grandma under the bus. Just good ole 100% me and my opinions ...
and quotes!
Yesterday Marc took the "risk management is good" argument to the summit (pun intended) and started throwing all kinds of acronyms and terminology out there for us to consider. Now I'm exaggerating some to make a point, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that in hearing it I puked a little in my mouth!
After asking him whether he was a BS touting LEAN SIX SIGMA guy himself (jab, jab, jab) I hit him with my big left hand saying,
Can we actually get on with taking action and take the inevitable risk of actually accomplishing something?
Risk analysis is way over-played, at least in most of the corporate circles I've run in over the past decade or so. Maybe we should blame Jack Welch. Because everything, and I mean everything he did while at the helm was a MUST DO for all companies far and wide. But I like Jack so I'm not going there. If people were foolish enough to believe that what works for GE would work for them, well then they got what they deserved. But I digress ...
I'm a firm believer that risks must be taken. The boys in the risk management department agree and tack on that dreaded word - calculated risk. Now I recognize the merits of planning as much as anyone but the word calculated for me and calculated for them are not the same thing.
In most business and personal environments we don't deal with "unwilling to recognize this and people will die" levels of risk, but we do deal with risk none-the-less. And in most cases we're not even dealing with "business game over" risks. The companies I've worked for were contemplating strategic moves, markets to penetrate, clients/projects to pursue, and business lines to expand. The risk tolerance for me in these areas, often as a means of creating company differentiation and separating yourself from the pack, is to take the risk.
No war implications, no likely death and destruction. Just plain ole business where you make more or less money based on your choices.
So my view on this is slanted. Slanted to reject the large risk management teams in corporate giants advising of risks and scaring the hell out of executives to the point that they arrive at "analysis paralysis".
Another excerpt from my email yesterday to Marc and Brad on the subject:
What's the risk of shoving your Six Sigma analysis up your ass?! Do the calculations on that and let me know, but I'm pretty certain it's a risk I'm willing to take!
So I too will end with a couple of quotes. The first is better for my argument because it speaks to the realm of risk management that most people have to deal with in their lives - not climbing mountains or dealing with war time implications.
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your ideas, your dreams, before a crowd, is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing do nothing, have nothing, are nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes, they are slaves; they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
- Dear Abby
And the last of my quotes IS from an infamous military general who went out in a blaze of glory, perhaps scoffing at risk just a little to much in his zealous attempt to overcome his chronic case of short-man syndrome. But I like it because it errs on the side of action. That's where I lie on this matter.
Marc makes a good point regarding recognition of the time you have to make a decision. But I'm tainted by my past experience in the corporate world where not enough value was placed on speed when it came to making a decision and going with it!
Marc makes a good point regarding recognition of the time you have to make a decision. But I'm tainted by my past experience in the corporate world where not enough value was placed on speed when it came to making a decision and going with it!
The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
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