Flip the Risk

What do you do when faced with a big decision? Do you consider the risks? How does perceived risk factor into deciding for or against?

During the past week I've worked with people contemplating large and small decisions. Some are strategic, some opportunistic, others reactive. Risk has been a core part of every conversation. Many of us seem to be pretty good at considering what could go wrong and reasons not to act. Sometimes that holds us back from deciding yes to something worthwhile.

Flipping risk is a useful way to level up the thinking. Asking ‘what's at risk if we don't?’ immediately shifts your thinking to the potential downside if you pass something up. This week, flipping risk has led to a company more assertively owning its space, a difficult but necessary HR decision, a bold adventure, creation of a new entity to explore a bold collaboration, a challenging but wise personal decision. In each case, the decision would have been ‘No’ before flipping the risk.

Flipping risk won't change every decision, but it will help you see it more clearly. There are a lot of great opportunities just waiting for a different perspective. What's at risk if you let them pass you by?

The View from Here

How clear is the strategic view in your organisation? Most of the leaders I am working with are experiencing 3 factors clouding the view:

• Staff shortages - For many this means time off strategy and on tools to keep up. It means employing people you might not employ in different times. It means pressure on induction and training processes as people try to get staff up and running in the shortest possible time. It often means frustration as the combination also makes for low engagement and lack of clarity = do overs, or new people leaving before they are even up to speed.

• Fatigue - the cadence has been high for ages. To-do lists grow so fast you know some items will die there, never seeing the light of day. People are worn down.

• Short horizons - some have got into a habit of reacting to whatever comes up. It started with COVID when Friday’s plan was torn up on Monday because the rules had changed - reactivity was the only choice then. Combined with staff shortages and fatigue it’s leaving many feeling as if they are perpetually chasing their tail.

It all obscures the view. How do you know that your business is delivering on what it promises? Are you experiencing a greater than usual gap between front line efforts and high level strategy and planning?

If you answered yes to either of the above, sing out. I have some solutions that are working well across a number of sectors.