Is Managing Risk a Negative Way to Work?
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Peter Tarhanidis, Conrado Morlan, Jen Skrabak, Mario Trentim, Christian Bisson, Yasmina Khelifi, Sree Rao, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, David Wakeman, Ramiro Rodrigues, Wanda Curlee, Lenka Pincot, cyndee miller, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, Marat Oyvetsky
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.
View Posts By:
Cameron McGaughy
Lynda Bourne
Kevin Korterud
Peter Tarhanidis
Conrado Morlan
Jen Skrabak
Mario Trentim
Christian Bisson
Yasmina Khelifi
Sree Rao
Soma Bhattacharya
Emily Luijbregts
David Wakeman
Ramiro Rodrigues
Wanda Curlee
Lenka Pincot
cyndee miller
Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres
Marat Oyvetsky
Past Contributors:
Rex Holmlin
Vivek Prakash
Dan Goldfischer
Linda Agyapong
Jim De Piante
Siti Hajar Abdul Hamid
Bernadine Douglas
Michael Hatfield
Deanna Landers
Kelley Hunsberger
Taralyn Frasqueri-Molina
Alfonso Bucero Torres
Marian Haus
Shobhna Raghupathy
Peter Taylor
Joanna Newman
Saira Karim
Jess Tayel
Lung-Hung Chou
Rebecca Braglio
Roberto Toledo
Geoff Mattie
Recent Posts
Project 2030: Skills We Need to Cultivate Now
The Technical Program Manager: How to Stay Relevant in 2025
5 Things Your Operational Plan Should Do
5 New Project Guardrails for Adaptive Leaders
The Leader's Voice: Respect It, Protect It, and Use It Properly!
Categories
2020,
Adult Development,
Agile,
Agile,
Agile,
agile,
Agile management,
Agile management,
Agile;Community;Talent management,
Artificial Intelligence,
Backlog,
Basics,
Benefits Realization,
Best Practices,
BIM,
business acumen,
Business Analysis,
Business Analysis,
Business Case,
Business Intelligence,
Business Transformation,
Calculating Project Value,
Canvas,
Career Development,
Career Development,
Career Help,
Career Help,
Career Help,
Career Help,
Careers,
Careers,
Careers,
Careers,
Categories: Career Help,
Change Management,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Collaboration,
Collaboration,
Collaboration,
Collaboration,
Communication,
Communication,
Communication,
Communication,
Communications Management,
Complexity,
Conflict,
Conflict Management,
Consulting,
Continuous Learning,
Continuous Learning,
Continuous Learning,
Continuous Learning,
Continuous Learning,
Cost Management,
COVID-19,
Crises,
Crisis Management,
critical success factors,
Cultural Awareness,
Culture,
Decision Making,
Design Thinking,
Digital Project Management,
Digital Transformation,
digital transformation,
Digitalisation,
Disruption,
Diversity,
Diversity,
Documentation,
Earned Value Management,
Education,
EEWH,
Enterprise Risk Management,
Escalation management,
Estimating,
Ethics,
execution,
Expectations Management,
Facilitation,
feasibility studies,
Future,
Future of Project Management,
Generational PM,
Governance,
Government,
green building,
Growth,
Horizontal Development,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Resources,
Inclusion,
Information Technology,
Innovation,
Intelligent Building,
International,
International Development,
Internet of Things (IOT),
Internet of Things (IoT),
IOT,
Knowledge,
Leadership,
Leadership,
Leadership,
Leadership,
Leadership,
lean construction,
LEED,
Lessons Learned,
Lessons learned;Retrospective,
Managing for Stakeholders,
managing stakeholders as clients,
Mentoring,
Mentoring,
Mentoring,
Mentoring,
Mentoring,
Methodology,
Metrics,
Micromanagement,
Microsoft Project PPM,
Motivation,
Negotiation,
Neuroscience,
neuroscience,
New Practitioners,
Nontraditional Project Management,
OKR,
Online Learning,
opportunity,
Organizational Culture,
Organizational Project Management,
Pandemic,
People management,
Planing,
planning,
PM & the Economy,
PM History,
PM Think About It,
PMBOK Guide,
PMI,
PMI EMEA 2018,
PMI EMEA Congress 2017,
PMI EMEA Congress 2019,
PMI Global Conference 2017,
PMI Global Conference 2018,
PMI Global Conference 2019,
PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2011 - EMEA,
PMI Global Congress 2011 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2012 - EMEA,
PMI Global Congress 2012 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2013 - EMEA,
PMI Global Congress 2013 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2014 - EMEA,
PMI Global Congress 2014 - North America,
PMI GLobal Congress EMEA 2018,
PMI PMO Symposium 2012,
PMI PMO Symposium 2013,
PMI PMO Symposium 2015,
PMI PMO Symposium 2016,
PMI PMO Symposium 2017,
PMI PMO Symposium 2018,
PMI Pulse of the Profession,
PMO,
PMO,
pmo,
PMO Project Management Office,
portfolio,
Portfolio Management,
Portfolio Management,
portfolio management,
presentations,
Priorities,
Probability,
Problem Structuring Methods,
Process,
Procurement Management,
profess,
Program Management,
project,
Project Delivery,
Project Dependencies,
Project Failure,
project failure,
Project Leadership,
Project Management,
project management,
project management office,
Project Planning,
project planning,
Project Requirements,
Project Success,
Ransomware,
Reflections on the PM Life,
Remote,
Remote Work,
Requirements Management,
Research Conference 2010,
Researching the Value of Project Management,
Resiliency,
Risk Management,
Risk Management,
Risk management,
risk management,
ROI,
Roundtable,
Salary Survey,
Schedule Management,
Scheduling,
Scope Management,
Scrum,
search,
SelfLeadership,
SelfLeadership,
SelfLeadership,
SelfLeadership,
SelfLeadership,
Servant Leadership,
Sharing Knowledge,
Sharing Knowledge,
Sharing Knowledge,
Sharing Knowledge,
Sharing Knowledge,
Social Responsibility,
Sponsorship,
Stakeholder Management,
Stakeholder Management,
stakeholder management,
Strategy,
Strategy,
swot,
Talent Management,
Talent Management,
Talent Management,
Talent Management,
Talent Management,
Talent Management Leadership SelfLeadership Collaboration Communication,
Taskforce,
Teams,
Teams in Agile,
Teams in Agile,
teamwork,
Tech,
Technical Debt,
Technology,
TED Talks,
The Project Economy,
Timeline,
Tools,
tools,
Transformation,
transformation,
Transition,
Trust,
Value,
Vertical Development,
Volunteering,
Volunteering #Leadership #SelfLeadership,
Volunteering Sharing Knowledge Leadership SelfLeadership Collaboration Trust,
VUCA,
Women in PM,
Women in Project Management
Date
By Christian Bisson
Risk management is often overlooked. Most people think it’s simply additional costs; others think it’s secondary and can be put aside to prioritize everything else. Some simply don’t understand it at all.
Regardless, project managers should always push the team to do it, even if at first it seems like it’s more about educating than any actual risk management.
While doing just that recently, though, I stumbled onto a new point of view I didn’t see coming: Risk management is “negative.” The rationale behind this view seemed to be that it makes us focus on what could go wrong, when we should be managing the project without thinking about potential problems.
I can’t deny that being positive is important for every aspect of one’s life. But I couldn’t disagree more that thinking about what could go wrong is negative. If anything, risk management is a positive way to work to make sure the negative stays far away from your projects.
Risk management is also about focusing on the positive risks and how to embrace those opportunities, although that part of risk management is often overlooked, unfortunately.
Have you come across similar point of views around risk management?
Posted
by
Christian Bisson
on: November 28, 2015 11:31 AM |
Permalink
Comments (19)
Please login or join to subscribe to this item
Bruce Wilkinson MBA, PMP
Expert Project Manager / Trustworthy Executive Assistant / Business Coach| goBRUCE Business Services
Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador
This post made me stop and think. Risk management is such a huge part of my professional and personal life that I can hardly imagine someone denigrating it as being negative (and therefore by implication, something that should be avoided). But then as I thought about it, I have known some happy-go-lucky individuals who were so positive that even negative situations that should have been easily anticipated hit them like a ton of bricks. Certainly not the way to run a project!
I was wondering why someone should think Risk Management is insignificant...although more or less everyone is involved in "Getting rid of risk" activities in everyday life.
Since Managing Risk is a technique / critical thinking to cope uncertainty, and eliminate/mitigate the negative aspects of project, it cannot be a overlooked.
fosco frongia
Senior project manager| ENTE PATRIMONIALE CHIESA GESU' CRISTO SUG
Fino Mornasco, Como, Italy
Hi Christian,
i completely agree your point of view. Risk management is a positive approach because the risks exist in the case you manage them or in the case you not. it is only a lack of wariness not considering them
Risk management by definition includes uncertainty which can impact the project objectives positively or negatively.
This essentially means that one has to identify risks that could be an opportunity or negatively impact one or more stakeholders/project objectives.
Risk management such as risk identification, monitoring and control are to be done continuously throughout the project in order to ensure the output of the project is achieved and benefit is realized by the organization and finally adds "enterprise/business value" on a sustained basis.
Risk management should be seen as "positive effort" as project environment is dynamic and change happens. In order to manage the change, one should look out for the causes and develop risk management plans to stay on course.
It is just about perception. People tend to think positive always so they consider Risks Management as negative exercise. Risk Management is a must do exercise and removes minimizes the negativity.
Hi Christian,
Thought provoking! Instead of viewing it as negative or positive, maybe we should look at the utility of risk management. Is it useful? Definitely yes. So, risk management is a positive way of averting the negatives; or a negative way of ensuring that we get more positive outcomes!
Risk management is surely a way of life for all of us, pulling out of a junction in your car on the way to work, crossing the road or checking the 'what ifs' on your project are hard wired into us so trying to think of it as positive or negative seems a little strange.
I cannot understand those people who say that risk management is insignificant or negative.
I agree with Pravin who says Risk Management is a must do exercise...
Thanks everyone for sharing.
It was indeed unexpected to hear, not mention it was still not understood after a few attempts of trying to explain it by basically stating everything that was written in the above comments!
I'm curious to hear if anyone has been is a similar situation, and if so, how you reacted or explained it, and what was the outcome.
Cheers.
If proper risk management is not done, then project will slope towards negativity.
Anthony Roche
Laboratory Operations Manager| Protean Biodiagnostics
Orlando, Fl, United States
Positioning Risk as an opportunity to deliver positive results takes away the negative reaction from those that are participating. Operating from the point that risk assessment is an ongoing process throughout the life of the project and spending time on a frequent basis working on how each risk will be handled, helps lead the team into delivering with increased confidence.
Steven Phoa
VP Data Center Service Delivery| Strateq Data Centre Sdn Bhd
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
I like Anthony Roche comment. I believe it all come down to the way we view risks. In most situation, the first reaction upon hearing "risks", is all about bad things; a "no-no" situation and as such the project stakeholders tend to view risks in negative manners. However, if one goes about handling risks management with a positive view i.e that risk management will result in successful outcome, then the stakeholders will see risks not as dead-ends but just obstacles that need to be overcome. This is empowering for the stakeholders.
Awesome perspective !! It's quite true that anticipating unplanned negative events (risks) and how to deal with them can be considered by some as not being positive about the project and the project team. However, it's something we need to do as part of our profession as Proj Mgrs, Program Mgrs, Portfolio Mgrs, etc. One way to "fight back" against stereotypes like these is to comment that we are being proactive in considering risks before they can possibly occur. Almost everyone agrees that proactive is "better" than reactive. :-)
Michael Trumper
Business Deveopment, Partner | Intaver Institute Inc and RiskyProjectSoftware
Alberta, Canada
Risk management is really about taking a proactive (overused, but in this case accurate) approach to managing projects. You can either be proactive by looking forward and charting the best course for your project or you can be reactive and constantly managing issues.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
I totally agree with that.
Ramesh Chalamalasetti
PMI ATP Instructor – PMP®| PMI Certified Instructor - PMP Exam Prep®
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Many a times I experienced this hypothetical mindset looking at risk thought processes is a sin/negative. It's my gut feeling that it's non other than key stakeholders innocence or lack of PM knowledge that keeps driving them. PMBOK style of looking at risks rather positively stay awesome for sure.
Steven Zachary
Director| Alberta Health Services
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
When looking at risks, I'm typically in the mindset of, "how could this break, go wrong...etc". The question and approach is to look at things through the eyes of the eternal pessimist.
It doesn't mean the work itself is negative, in fact it's highly positive. But to be successful in risk you have to think holistically. So quick and dirty, the answer in my opinion is: BOTH!
Quinton van Eeden
Enabling Quality Decisions by Addressing Uncertainty| TPG GRC
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
risk management is project management for adults
Markus Kopko
AI Enabler for Project & Program Mgmt | Founder PMotion.ai / The PM
AI Coach| PMotion.ai
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
agreed, thanks for sharing
Please Login/Register to leave a comment.
|
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper."
- Robert Frost
|
