Insight into effective risk management

I don’t know Christopher Burt of Halex Consulting, although we are connected on LinkedIn.

But I need to draw your attention to a provocative piece by his firm (presumably by him): The risks of risk management. (My thanks go to Tim Leech for tweeting about it.)

While he doesn’t reference either World-Class Risk Management or this blog, what he says is very much in line with my core message:

• The periodic review of a list of top risks is not effective risk management. It actually has very little value in leading the organization to success.
• Organizations need to obtain confidence that there is an acceptable likelihood of achieving enterprise objectives. (Some prefer to talk about certainty in achieving objectives; it’s the same concept but I don’t like talking about certainty or uncertainty – it’s confusing.)
• Its not about managing risk. It’s about achieving those enterprise objectives. Chris talks about performance management whereas I say this is simple effective management.

You will see how Burt’s language is consistent with mine. For example, he says:

• In many businesses, there is a tendency towards ‘risk listing’, with the primary focus on documenting, assessing and prioritising…