Throughout the ages, many have tried to put into words exactly what risk is and what it means to them. Some have been more successful than others—cutting to the heart of the matter, appealing to sensibility, or just putting an idea that’s difficult to explain into words we all can understand.
Today, I want to share 99 quotes that have had the greatest impact on me and how I think about the concept of risk. Continue reading
From Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s 14 Points: Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
By definition, in order to improve something, a change has to occur. I have benchmarked several companies and it seems that those that do the best with their improvement efforts have a workforce that embraces change. If, on the other hand, there is a culture of fear and the workers are terrified to try something different, nothing will improve. Continue reading
We are all good at reacting and responding, putting out fires, and crisis management. In addition, organizations large and small have learned how to be lean and agile, and how to execute a strategy at a high level.
However, despite these skills, General Motors still declared bankruptcy, Blockbuster closed its last store, and Blackberry quickly moved from leading to bleeding. And let’s not forget Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Dell, and a host of other companies who failed to thrive despite its leaders and workers being responsive, agile, and executing well. Continue reading
Blocker (noun) – Someone who purposefully opposes any change (improvement) to a process for personal reasons
‘Blockers’ can occupy any position in a company. They can be any age, gender, education level or pay rate. We tend to think of blockers as older, more experienced workers who have been with the company for a long time, and they don’t want to consider any other way to do things. Continue reading
INTRODUCTION
The next time you hear that one of your risk scenarios is unrealistic and that the events could not have occurred in the sequence that are being depicted you might direct your audience to Japan. Imagine a scenario that contained an earthquake, followed by a tsunami, a nuclear accident, bird flu, snow and bad weather, panic buying of food, fuel and other necessities.
Unreal? That is exactly what happened in Japan; and why your key executives need to be a bigger part of the business continuity planning process. Continue reading