Depending on God’s will, I’ll be sixty four next year.

Looking at what happened in the last seventy years or so, after the end of World War II, there have been dramatic changes in every aspect of human life and there will be similar changes in the next years to come, or perhaps less dramatic.   Trends “invariably vary”, if there’s one thing about predictability is that’s unpredictable.

PERCEPTION OF CHANGE
What’s appalling is that we generally do not realize the relevance of these changes and – what’s even worse – we do not generally perceive changes unless they’re abrupt.  Gradual adaption to change is what makes change less significant, almost unperceivable.

We have to change this perception mechanism.  Iit’s in our mind, we can control it if and to the extent we want.

A Zen sage wrote “I want to be aware of every step I make”.

But we’re today always too occupied to rush, too busy to hit often insignificant targets.

UNAWARENESS -KEY RISK PRINCIPLE
In a word, today’s keyword is “unawareness”.

Unawareness is going to be the key principle to risk management.  Therefore, we must not risk that such an unconsciousness puts at stake the resources we invest when fighting risk.

We, therefore, must fight risk unawareness before risk itself.

I’m therefore concerned about the word “too”, which implies excess, which implies risk that is or can go out of control.

In Medio stat Virtus said the ancient Latins, A Question of Balance sang the rock band Moody Blues in the late sixties or so. And so on.

Certainly, in some cases taking excessive risks is the only way to success.  History shows plenty of examples.

But it’s again a question of being aware or unaware.  One can take an excessive risk being aware of its consequences.  Another can take the – apparently – same risk in complete unawareness.

AWARENESS IN ISO 9001
When looking at Quality Standards, awareness was first put forward by the automotive Standard QS 9000, then it was and is emphasized by ISO/TS 16949.  I’m personally not aware of the awareness requirements set by railroad, aircraft, safety, health, or security standards.  And I excuse myself for being ignorant.

But certainly ISO 9001 doesn’t speak any words about awareness.

This “silence” doesn’t help us auditors.  Awareness or unawareness can’t be measured via the existing devices.  It’s much more perceived.  Instead perception depends on auditor’s sensitivity, but how and when and why would he or she raise a conformity against insufficient awareness?

To my knowledge, there’s no standard to determine awareness or its opposite or any step in between.

Yet awareness is a very basic input to any process and determines the process’s output.

We generally take awareness for granted, no greatest mistake could be made.

The French use the expression “savoir vivre” to emphasize that knowledge of the world and its ways is critical to living well and success.

We’ve therefore have to be aware and learn how to be aware.  If we don’t do this, all our endeavors to fight risk are doomed to fail.

We also take all the words we use for granted.  We seldom stop to look at their significance.  Having worked for a time to develop a risk glossary, I think I know what words mean and should be used to mean.

Take John Boorman’s Hell in the Pacific film where there are only two actors, one American, the second Japanese.  Both speak their own language and its very difficult to  communication with each other.  Only survival ensures and an essential resource, rinsable water, ensure there is communication and ultimately understanding

As a conclusion, I wish we should all be consciously aware of what we do and what we say, let alone what we think.  Understanding the risk of our actions and their consequences depend on our awareness.