Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Monsters Under the Bed
Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.
When it comes to risk management, hope is not a strategy. You have to approach risk as a contact sport and be willing to make concrete choices in the moment.
Risk management is arguably the most pivotal discipline in project management. It is the fulcrum on which balances success and failure, action and reaction, awareness and ignorance. The attitude towards managing risk goes to the heart of defining how project management is viewed in any organization and by any management team.
While virtually everyone is in agreement that risks are to be avoided, and managed where they cannot be avoided, this sense of "management" all too often takes on the appearance of naming our fears and hoping desperately that they don’t come to bite us. Yes, risk planning is now built into the discipline of many project processes. Teams will brainstorm a list of potential problems and roadblocks, diligently classify each as to its probability of occurring and the magnitude of pain it could cause, and record a high-level strategy of good ideas to address the problem if it occurs. All is duly documented, presented to the sponsor and steering committee, signed off and filed with the project plan. Here endeth the risk management.
I am not trying to discredit the process of risk identification, per se — and a team brainstorming session is absolutely one of the best …
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
ADVERTISEMENTS
|
"I'm sick and tired of hearing things from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites. All I want is the truth. Just gimme some truth." - John Lennon |