Change isn’t easy. We are creatures of comfort. People exhibit a status quo bias. You may hear folks say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. This outlook was fine last century, in a stable world, but the modern world does not reward such indifference. We live in an age of digital disruption. Innovation, continual improvement, fail fast and perpetual beta are the bywords, not necessarily for getting ahead, but simply staying competitive.
At the dawn of the information age, office workers were promised efficiencies that they could only dream of. We have certainly benefited from what was once called teleworking, but a shorter working week? We certainly are better connected than we were in an analog, pre-digital era, with near-instant messaging and rapid access to the totality of human knowledge, but this change came with some unforeseen, knock-on consequences. Knowledge without experience is no substitute for expertise. Hyperconnectivity allows the rapid transmission of poor decisions and misinformation just as efficiently as good quality data or instruction. An unintended consequence of the internet has been noise or, more specifically, information overload and friction associated with unnecessarily connected, complicated and inefficient systems.
Some commentators will say that the modern world is characterized as VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. As we set out in the first post in this series on Capability Improvement, organizations cannot afford to overlook the need to formally manage risk. It is not enough to make only strategic assessments of risk. In a volatile world, forecasts can prove wrong, so quickly that continual risk management is necessary to track team performance against baseline budgets and plans, prompting course correction as soon as possible. See our post on Real-Time Scenario Planning for more on this.
Self-awareness does not come easily to everyone either. A maturity model can serve as a useful tool for project team members to better understand their current level of maturity, and then compare their current position against a spectrum of possible capabilities. To quote Jefferson, "The wise know their weakness too well to assume infallibility; and he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
With any skill, whether it is of a sporting or musical nature, a team’s project risk management ability can range from rudimentary to world-class. Having an awareness of stretch goals can not only improve team capability, it can also provide impetus to and develop or maintain a competitive advantage.
Dr D Hillson once likened the successful application of a maturity model to, “walking up the down escalator”. A good maturity model will not be set in stone in perpetuity. It should have some flexibility so that an organization may update their capability objectives and strive to attain stretch goals that will help keep them competitive. This notion holds true at both a personal and organizational level.
Hillson described risk management capability in the context of four attributes:
Continual improvement may be second nature to dedicated project professionals but, to overcome natural inertia or status quo bias, risk management should be held to be an ongoing organizational change management (OCM) project. In fact, to gain the most from any risk management initiative, you will need a group-wide OCM campaign to ensure change for the better is taking place among all personnel, at the same speed and in a common direction, as we discuss in blog post Promoting A Discovery And Growth Mindset.
Training for improving risk culture is typically the first or initial component of any such OCM project. From the get-go, success will require careful stakeholder management and, to reiterate, traction will only be gained if there is clear and demonstrable leadership in support of risk management initiates, from the top down.
Is your organization comfortable analyzing projects in uncertain terms? Are you dedicated to continual improvement and using best-in-class tools that can combine both cost and schedule data to help prioritize the reduction of your most critical project risks? If you would like to optimize the chance of project or program success for the benefit of your team, please contact Safran Risk and develop your bespoke capability improvement options with the support of a trusted advisor.