Risk Management - Positive Risk Management

Positive Risk Management

Positive Risk Management is an approach that recognizes the importance of the human factor and of individual differences in propensity for risk taking. It draws from the work of a number of academics and professionals who have expressed concerns about scientific rigor of the wider risk management debate, or who have made a contribution emphasizing the human dimension of risk.

Firstly, it recognizes that any object or situation can be rendered hazardous by the involvement of someone with an inappropriate disposition towards risk; whether too risk taking or too risk averse.

Secondly, it recognizes that risk is an inevitable and ever present element throughout life: from conception through to the point at the end of life when we finally lose our personal battle with life threatening risk.

Thirdly, it recognizes that every individual has a particular orientation towards risk; while at one extreme people may by nature be timid, anxious and fearful, others will be adventurous, impulsive and almost oblivious to danger. These differences are evident in the way we drive our cars, in our diets, in our relationships, in our careers.

Finally, Positive Risk Management recognizes that risk taking is essential to all enterprise, creativity, heroism, education, scientific advance – in fact to any activity and all the initiatives that have contributed to our evolutionary success and civilization. It is worth noting how many enjoyable activities involve fear and willingly embrace risk taking.

Within the entire Risk Management literature (and this section of Wikipedia) you will find little or no reference to the human part of the risk equation other than what might be implied by the term 'compliant'. This illustrates the narrow focus that is a hall mark of much current risk management practice. This situation arises from the basic premises of traditional risk management and the practices associated with health and safety within the working environment. There is a basic logic to the idea that any accident must reflect some kind of oversight or situational predisposition that, if identified, can be rectified. But, largely due to an almost institutionalised neglect of the human factor, this situationally focused paradigm has grown tendrils that reach into every corner of modern life and into situations where the unintended negative consequences threaten to outweigh the benefits.

Positive Risk Management views both risk taking and risk aversion as complementary and of equal value and importance within the appropriate context. As such, it is seen as complementary to the traditional risk management paradigm. It introduces a much needed balance to risk management practices and puts greater onus on management skills and decision making. It is the dynamic approach of the football manager who appreciates the offensive and defensive talents within the available pool of players. Every organisation has roles better suited to risk takers and roles better suited to the risk averse. The task of management is to ensure that the right people are placed in each job. The graveyard of former greats is littered with examples where the balance of risk went seriously awry; the ENRON and RBS stories have become iconic references in the pantheon of corporate governance and corporate mortality. Eastman Kodak might be a nominee for the opposite pole – the corporately risk averse.

Positive Risk Management relies on the ability to identify individual differences in propensity for risk taking. The science in this area has been developing rapidly over the past decade within the domain of personality assessment. Once an area of almost tribal allegiance to different schools of thought, today there is wide spread consensus about the structure of personality assessment and its status within the framework of the cross disciplinary progress being made in our understanding of Human Nature. The Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality has been shown to have relevance across many different cultures, to remain consistent over adult working life and to be significantly heritable. Within this framework there are many strands which have a clear relationship to risk tolerance and risk taking. For example, Eysenck (1973) reports that personality influences whether we focus on what might go wrong or on potential benefits; Nicholson et al. (2005) report that higher extroversion is related to greater risk tolerance; McCrae and Costa (1997) link personality to tolerance of uncertainty, innovation and willingness to think outside the box; Kowert, 1997) links personality to adventurousness, imagination, the search for new experiences and actively seeking out risk. Building from these foundations of well validated assessment practices, more specialized assessments have been developed, including assessment of Risk Type.