A Value Perspective on Risk

Known globally as The Risk Doctor, David has been working in risk management for about 30 years. He has worked in 48 countries on every continent except the Antarctic (too cold!), with clients in most industries.

  Risk Management   ProjectsAtWork  

A thinking tool called the Six Value Medals can help us identify and assess project risks that we might otherwise overlook. It offers a broader perspective on things that are important to organizations, groups and individuals than is usually found in the typical risk process.

Edward de Bono is famous for promoting creative thinking, and he has written many books to explain his radical ideas. Perhaps his best-known technique is the "Six Thinking Hats", which encourages people to adopt a range of different perspectives when thinking about an issue (see also “The Need for Negative”). Indeed the Six Thinking Hats can be very helpful in risk identification.

One of de Bono’s other thinking tools is the Six Value Medals. These describe different types of values that are important to people and organizations, and against which we can perform a “value scan” when making decisions or determining courses of action. The Six Value Medals have many potential uses, as we seek to create and protect value. But they may also help us to think about risk in a new way.

The simple definition of risk as “uncertainty that matters” shows that we need to understand what matters before we can find the uncertainties that we need to manage. If we are managing risk at the business level, things that matter might include corporate objectives …

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