Lessons Learned: Seldom Remembered: Soon Forgotten

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

Something on the Project goes wrong and is fixed – “Let’s put this down for lessons learned” goes the management mantra.  But was this experience just a failing that should not have happened in the first place and relearning a previously taught, but now forgotten, ‘lesson’?

If we don’t learn then the same mistakes will be made and possible opportunities will be missed and, as Edmund Burke the 18th Century Irish Statesman said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it“.  But why do we forget our lessons?  Abe Lincoln said “Lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten” reflecting that loss in some form such as money, property, or reputation, not necessarily blood, is needed to ensure that memory is ingrained and can be recalled.

Lessons that are remembered after the fact tend to add insult to injury; when you’re up to your neck in alligators you then remember that distant lesson about draining the swamp! [Read more…]

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

Recently, Lloyd’s of London in conjunction with the University of Cambridge Center for Risk Studies, published the results of their global risk analysis.  Lloyd’s document is entitled “Lloyd’s City Risk Index: Executive Summary”.  Cambridge has entitled theirs “Cambridge Global Risk Outlook 2017”.   This is their second risk assessment.  The first was published in 2004.

The index is a ten-year projection based on twenty-two threats to 300 hundred of the world’s leading cities.  The 300 cities account for half of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  This piece discusses the results of the study and its implication for the application of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). [Read more…]

General Electric (GE) for many years was the go-to company for competitiveness, efficiency, and innovation. General Electric’s  tagline was ‘Imagination at work.’

GE more recently has had a number of troubles.  GE’s profitability tanked. GE is selling many of its assets and divisions. GE was also taken off the Dow after 110 years. [Read more…]