CERM® Risk Insights

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

Andy Benoit once said, “Most geniuses — especially those who lead others — prosper not by deconstructing intricate complexities but by exploiting unrecognized simplicities.”

This statement is so true when corporate leaders and managers tend to over-complicate processes or over-engineer systems in organizations. Designing and implementing your organization’s enterprise-wide risk management system is no exception.

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

Are project risks round?  Curved objects can be less controllable than planar ones as they pitch, roll and yaw; and the tighter their curves the more difficult control becomes.  Even a truly planar surface is, geometrically, a curve but with an infinite radius.  The Earth’s horizon, that imaginary plane perpendicular to its radius is considered by some to be ‘flat’ but in reality it’s a sphere so we can never see over the horizon.  But what has this got to do with project risk?

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

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is becoming an important topic and activity worldwide. This is in part because of COVID 19. COVID 19 focused the public’s attention on health risks. As the world comes out of the pandemic crisis, the focus, particularly in government, will be on other risks. Already, in the United States, cities which defunded the police, are reallocating money back due to rising crime. However, because of the political atmosphere and retirement of senior officers, cities are having trouble recruiting enough people to fill the vacated ranks. Adding to this problem are the consequences of riots and work from home. In many urban areas, the result has been a hollowing out of the urban core.

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

We are in an interesting time in history, when transformative digital disruptions have their foot on the gas and are accelerating at exponential rates. Every industry is facing disruption in a multitude of ways, and it is now up to business leaders and their organizations to implement my Anticipatory Organization® Model and understand and identify the future certainties of Hard Trends and how to leverage them to become the disruptor before someone else does.

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

Humble, personal, professional, expert or even uninformed; opinions are just opinions when the facts aren’t fully known or understood.  Opinionators are merely stating their belief as to the what, why, when, where and the how something has happened and who was responsible, who is culpable and who has to do something. This belief is believed, at least by them, and, for the most part, they expect other people to believe it as well. 

Agreement brings harmony, collaboration and progress while disagreement brings confrontation, debate and procrastination while each party attempts to convert the other to their oftentimes sanctimonious viewpoint.

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

How does Earn Value Management (EVM) reduce project risk? To answer this question, you have to understand what EVM is.

WHAT IS EVM?

EVM is the tool used to measure progress against the PMB. (Performance Measurement Plan).  EVM identifies poorly performing WP (Work Packages) and problem trends early in the project allowing maximum time to identify the root cause of the problem and identify an action plan to fix the problem.

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

There are numerous papers and documents on the internet regarding a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The question is how do you create one for a new project. This paper explains how.

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

I have some experience with the Enneagram personality method. I found it to be accurate and useful. I suggest it is a good method to consider using to select your project team. The paper starts with a brief description of the Enneagram basics and then explains tips that can be used to select your team. Two figures are included to help explain the basics. You can go online and get a lot more detail information about the Enneagram method.

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

I am a curious about some of the new project team theories or methodologies that have arisen in the past 20-30 years that are undergoing a resurgent today primarily due to COVID -19 effect on the workforce. These theories are designed to improve performance and functioning of a project team by making people feel comfortable about speaking up and being creative without the fear of repercussion. Google and other Agile companies are in the process of implementing these methods.

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

Employers don’t hire people – or assign them a project or task – in the hopes they will fail.  And employees don’t take on a job, project, or task in the hopes they will fail.  On the contraire, the expectations all around are that the outcome will be successful.

Certainly, sometimes the outcomes are not successful.  But these unsuccessful outcomes are generally more tolerated – even expected – in companies that are in their early stages or have a company culture that is more entrepreneurial and not so risk adverse.  And when an unsuccessful outcome in such companies occurs, it’s usually a disappointment (and you certainly don’t want to make being unsuccessful a habit), but it’s not usually a negative mark on the employee.

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

Based on over 30 years’ experience with project risk management, the best way I found to monitor risk mitigation plans is to incorporate them into the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS). The reason is each month (or week) when the IMS is reviewed the risk mitigation plan is also reviewed. Since the IMS is linked, a slip in a mitigation plan step can readily be seen as well as the potential impact it may have on the project.

The question is How is the risk mitigation plan integrated into the IMS? This paper will explain how it tis done. [Read more…]

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

Robots are developed to address a problem. For example, automating a production line. To achieve this goal, a multidiscipline engineering team is required.

The question is which engineering discipline should I study? I suggest you get a degree in System Engineering. This paper will explain why.

Almost daily, we hear of some problem in the supply chain. A few weeks ago, a container ship got stuck in the Suez Canal and hundreds of ships were backed up with no place to go. As well, original equipment manufacturers in Europe missed critical parts because of their Just in Time delivery practices.

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

In February 2021, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published an Enterprise Risk Management Maturity Model. This model is designed for Tax Administration Agencies. It is the culmination of work that began in 2018. This work was designed to develop stand-alone maturity models for a broad range of organizational activities. One of which was Enterprise Risk Management. This piece examines this model and discusses how such models are being used by government elsewhere.

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

The Pareto Principle, or more commonly the “80/20 rule”, is based upon the observation that 80% of the consequences of something are attributable to 20% of the causes.  The quality guru Joseph Moses Juran named the Principle in 1941 after the Italian economist who, in 1896, observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.  The centenarian also similarly observed that 80% of quality problems result from 20% of the causes.  In the business world we also see that 80% of a company’s revenue is generated by only 20% of its customers.  As with life, things are not distributed either evenly or even fairly.