How do you mitigate risk? How do you accelerate change? Are the two connected? It seems to me one way to lower the risk factor, in anything, is to actively manage change around the issue. In other words, as the danger of risk increases, decrease risk by turning the right valves, pushing the right buttons, and flipping the right switches. Don’t wait till the top blows. Let the steam out quickly and by doing so control the outcome.
It’s an interesting notion: controlling the outcome instead of managing the fallout. How often have we done the former, wishing that we could the latter?
Cat Cooper, loyal reader and submitter of quotes, sent me the following:
“Some people change when they see the light, others when they feel the heat.”
-Caroline Schoeder
See the light. Control the outcome. Feel the heat. Pray…….
Controlling the outcome requires adjusting to the light before you get burned. I am often criticized by family and colleagues for “worrying about nothing,” but I firmly believe in these in these three things:
1. Once you’re absolutely positive that your work is accurate, check it one more time.
2. Imagine what can go wrong and plan for it. Have a Plan B…and a Plan C.
3. And when something does go wrong….if you can’t fix it, feature it. Mistakes often lead to a better outcome than the original plan if you’re open to the possibilities.
Your number 3 is a key — Harold Burson of Burson-Marsteller called it the “Take the wind out of the sails” strategy. If you are up front and honest about problems and issues the conversation changes
Call me a skeptic or a cynic, but I can’t help thinking that thoughts like this often sound good in a vaccuum, but tend not to work in the “real world”. As much as I’d like to believe that being candid about our mistakes, problems, and issues will lead to a constructive discussion about how to avoid them or make a process better, I have seen too many times that people are often thrown under the bus for being the only one to own up to their missteps or weaknesses – and often times for something far less obvious. The business world has become a game and those who refuse to play often do so at their own peril. Unfortunately, YRB/Wunderman is not an exception to this rule. Candor may be appreciated, but often times, those who stick their necks out and take a risk (or even just take responsibility), often get hurt simply because they are offering themselves up as an easy scapegoat. And those who are intrenched in the rules of the game are rewarded because of the perceptions that playing along can create.
good point — then we need to fix that — because the concept should not just be academic. Its like the Tylenol crisis — they owned up to it and are still in business.