on Risk & Safety

Guest Post by Patrick Ow (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Organisations are systems that consist of sub-systems like sales and production. Change impacts the organisational system and subsystems in different ways and speeds – sales may react quickly to the changing external environment, but production may take time to change the process. Unfortunately, people are the hardest to change.

When organisational subsystems change at different speeds caused by external changes, it creates gaps or cracks in the system. This is where the system gets disintegrated.

Guest Post by Malcolm Peart (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

A project controls colleague of mine recently wrote:

“Really, I never had to deal with delivery directors / managers who did not understand or appreciate the effort which goes behind a digital data fed dashboard”

Sarcasm, according to Oscar Wilde, may be the lowest from of wit but it’s the highest form of intelligence.  While being humorous at the expense of those who demand dashboards it’s a sad truth that most demanders have no idea as to the effort required in producing a dashboard.  For them dashboards can be instantly tailored to any whims or fancies at the flick of a switch or the stroke of a key on a keyboard. 

Guest Post by Patrick Ow (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” (Gordon Gekko, ‘Wall Street’ movie, 1987)

When energy-trading company Enron declared bankruptcy in 2001, it was the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. Enron’s execs were pocketing millions while knowingly overstating the company’s earnings to shareholders through fraudulent accounting.

“Greed is good” even in the highly regulated financial services sector. UK’s Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards sums it up nicely when it says, “Too many bankers, especially at the most senior levels, have operated in an environment with insufficient personal responsibility. Top bankers dodged accountability for failings on their watch by claiming ignorance or hiding behind collective decision-making. […] Remuneration has incentivised misconduct and excessive risk-taking, reinforcing a culture where poor standards were often considered normal. Many bank staff have been paid too much for doing the wrong things, with bonuses awarded and paid before the long-term consequences become apparent. The potential rewards for fleeting short-term success have sometimes been huge, but the penalties for failure, often manifest only later, have been much smaller or negligible. Despite recent reforms, many of these problems persist.” – with emphasis (Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, 2013)

By Greg Hutchins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Over the next 10 years, I expect many more industries to be disrupted by software, with new world beating Silicon Valley companies doing the disruption in more cases than not.
Marc Andreessen – Venture Capitalist

We’ve been involved in engineering and tech automation for years. What surprises us is the observable breadth, depth, and impacts of automation (AI included) over the last five years, which COVID accelerated. What’s the big deal about automation?

By Greg Hutchins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

So, when should a company self-disrupt? Or, more importantly when should you self-disrupt.

Companies face these disruptor questions:

1. What are possible triggers to start (your) self-disruption?
   2. When should they (you) self-disrupt?
      3. How quickly should they (you) self-disrupt?
         4. How should they (you) self-disrupt?
            5. What’s their (your) final destination?
               6. How are they (you) going to monetize (make money)?
                  All companies are searching for the next killer work model, app, platform, product, or idea. It’s too late when there are not enough products in the pipeline to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Companies learned this lesson the hard way.

Guest Post by Malcolm Peart (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Project Management – it’s not covered by a discrete law but when it’s practiced under a contract it’s open to accusations of negligence, just consider the UK’s Hedley Byrne case.  Project Management is seen as a risk mitigation measure and, contractually speaking, this requires a duty of care by its practitioners and/or the legal entity represented.  Ignorance of legal requirements is no excuse for not knowing they exist.

Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

The PMBOK(Project Management Institute Book of Knowledge) Guide states that project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. Having a good plan, experienced PM, and excellent team is essential to great project management performance.  Managing project risks is key to success. Good project management decisions are vital to project success. To achieve this goal, you need good project management leadership.

Breaking an old business model is always going to require leaders to follow their instincts. There will always be persuasive reasons not to take a risk. But if you only do what worked in the past, you’ll wake up one day and find that you’ve been passed by.

Guest Post by Bill Promfret (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Back in 1990, I was introduced to Og Mandino, a best selling American author, just three of his books, “The Greatest Salesman in the World” The Greatest Miracle in The World” and “The Greatest Secret in the World” these three books alone sold over 50 million copies, his lecture was on “How to write and Speak.” In his presentation, which had been a tradition for more than 40 years, was posted on YouTube not long after his death in 1996. In it, he explains the relationship among three critical elements of any level of success: knowledge (K), practice (P) and talent (T).

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Economics concerns itself with the determination of the most logical and effective use of resources to meet private and social goals for some form of benefit.  While primarily concerned with industry and business, its concepts of opportunity cost, supply and demand, present value, and mutual interdependence economics is also applicable to email; one of our most utilised forms of communication but, possibly, the most hated. [Read more…]

Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

A Hybrid Methodology combining the speed and flexibility of Agile and the structure of Waterfall is feasible and practical. I base my opinion on the research I have done. I recently presented a Webinar to Project Management Institute (PMI) members on how to merge Agile and Waterfall to achieve a Hybrid methodology. The focus of this paper is to address the greatest risk to a company in implementing the new methodology i.e., acceptance of it. I addressed how to accomplish the merger to achieve a Hybrid method in a paper I wrote and posted on LinkedIn in May

Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.||
Jimmy Carter – U.S. President

Working It in VUCA time emphasizes Risk Based, Problem Solving (RBPS) and Risk Based, Decision Making (RBDM), which are the essence of self-management, execution, career resilience, and career agility.

Years ago, our mantra was risk management should be part of the tool box of all engineers.  Why?  Engineers live and work in the world of uncertainty and risk.  Then things changed.  In VUCA time, we say that risk is the entire toolkit and lens for ALL work and living in VUCA time.  McKinsey, the global consulting firm, explains the connection between problem solving and decision making:

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Guest Post by Patrick Ow (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Interest in risk culture has been growing since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. It is a topic that is getting more and more spotlight.

Regulatory authorities are demanding that financial institutions improve their ‘risk culture’. Workplace health and safety authorities are urging organisations to improve their ‘safety culture’. Everyone is talking about having a ‘customer experience culture’. And the list goes on.

Guest Post by Bill Pomfret (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Mental Health Awareness week is fast approaching. This year [2022] it is from 9th-15th May, and the theme is Loneliness, Anna Neagle is right, in her book Cultivating and being happy in our own company is important, but even the most introverted among us benefit from human connection and where increasingly people have started working from home, or in a hybrid home/workplace setting, we need to proactively seek that connection out.  Connection can be with our close circle, or even from small talk with strangers the research shows that both are helpful for our well-being. [Read more…]

Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

“Department of Defense (D0D) acquisition must improve program while working within budgetary constraints. The DoD community shows an interest in utilizing Agile methodologies, but struggles to reap Agile’s benefits. They encountered challenges including the historically built-up processes that enforce heavy-weight oversight, the outdated, manufacturing focused Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) provided in DoD Handbook: Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) for defense Material Items (MIL-STD-881C), and the inability of traditional waterfall-based process to accommodate iterative development.