Questioning status quo and challenging assumptions

Challenging assumptions and industry accepted best practices is a true passion of mine. Elon Musk calls it first principles. I love unpacking something that was done for years to core assumptions and then shaking them to the core. Sometimes this line of questioning is perceived as aggressive by process owners, after all this is how they did things for the last X years and nobody complained before. And sometimes it pays off handsomely. Like when I was given responsibility for insurance and started to reviewing every single policy, only to discover we have been underinsured 3X and overpaying 7X for the policy or to discover how every single limit and deductible had no connection to the actual underlying risk or discover policies with premiums so far above expected losses that the policy had to be cancelled asap. And it wasn’t just insurance, another huge surprise waited for me at third party risk management.

Did you know that most world class compliance and reputation risk assessment software providers use scoring models that are completely mis calibrated and under and overvalue risks by XX. Using some vendor risk assessment products was worse than doing no risk analysis at all. I do, because I back tested most of them and cancelled their subscriptions until they could show proper calibrated models. And don’t get me started on risk management methodologies from Big 4 or McKinseys of this world. There is a lot of BS out there and risk managers that find these inefficiencies can help their companies outperform the competition.

Thirst for knowledge

The second thing I am passionate about is finding new and better ways to integrate risk analysis into decision making or finding ways to create risk aware culture within the organisation.  Without exaggerating, I have probably read every decent risk management or decision making book out there. Most are mediocre, very few are amazing. But I have an amazon subscription and I have to read at least 2 books per month to use up all my credits. Have a look at my recommended reading list. I remember when in 2009 I discovered some paper on flaws of heatmaps which confirmed my suspicions or when I first read Thinking fast and slow to realise how cognitive biases explained a lot of risk owners behaviours. These feelings are priceless. That constant thrill of finding new knowledge is what motivates me.

Thinking 3 steps ahead

Thinking three steps ahead is a great way to force your brain to overcome some of the biases. Whenever I need to make an important decision, I think of the consequences of the consequences of that decision. And then think of the consequences of those consequences and their long term effect once again. Seeing the third step ahead often changes the decision quite significantly. Having the toolset to look ahead, see future as scenarios, finding contingencies is what motivates me.

Finding humor in most situations

I love a good sense of humor. Finding humor helps me not taking life too seriously and maintains a balanced perspective and reduces stress. It fosters a positive work environment, encouraging open communication and collaboration. Enjoying life and laughing a lot is what motivates me. I do have a weird very dark humor, but that’s a different story.

What about you, what motivates you?

I am separately interested in what motivates RM1 risk managers. For the love of me, I cannot figure out what motivates risk managers whose job is to generate risk reports for the regulators that have no relation to actual business or heatmaps that add nothing to business decisions or write 50 page risk framework documents that no one ever reads. Maybe you know?