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f you’ve read any of my other pieces, you know I’m an advocate for defining and managing risk (and opportunity) on projects and in organizations. And you know by “managing” I mean the active, vigilant monitoring of what is going on vs. what you may have anticipated. It makes sound business sense and it ends up saving you, your teams, and your management a whole lot of headaches later. Continue reading
Integration of risk and quality management is loved by some and hated by others. For most of us, it may be a matter of judgment whether and how much a system should or is able to be managed out of silos and of departmental boxes. Another part of life that different people loves or hates is flying. I love it. Continue reading
There is a risk on your project few of you have documented. It’s a big problem in any organization when it happens, and it happens all too often. It’s known as “groupthink” and Wikipedia defines it as:
“A psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.” Continue reading
FUTURE THINKING
The future seems to be coming at us at an ever-increasing rate. As effective managers and practitioners, we must think proactively about all the possibilities that the future may bring, but those possibilities have uncertain outcomes. We call those possibilities opportunities if we believe they will have positive outcomes. For example, we have the opportunity to successfully complete a project and make a substantial profit or we have an opportunity to introduce a new product into the marketplace first and capture the lion’s share of that market. We call those possibilities risks if we believe they will have negative outcomes. For example, we have the risk of not successfully completing that same project and losing our investment or we may have the risk of our competition beating us to the marketplace with a new product and losing market share. To quote Tom DeMarco, “Moving aggressively after opportunity means running toward rather than away from risk.” Continue reading
Anyone who has had the experience of visiting an Emergency Room has no doubt heard the nearly incessant cacophony of beeping sounds originating from a multitude of monitoring equipment. Continue reading