Risky Business
Last week I was at a conference which included a case study workshop on risk. Amongst other topics, we discussed if and should risk be avoided? Is there an acceptable level of risk? How do we manage risk? Is there a general attitude in favour of risk aversion? Does the current practice (and requirement) for risk assessment and attention to health and safety stifle innovation and initiative?
When I started my own company two and a half years ago, some people felt I was being ‘brave’ and taking a (big) risk. Perhaps that was a reflection on their perception of me! Yet for me (and my immediate family) it felt the ‘right’ thing to do. Yes, there was risk involved compared to the alternative of staying in an employed role in a relatively stable organisation. But there was also the ‘risk’ of not daring to take the opportunity and see where it would lead, of missing out on the ‘what if’ and ‘if only’.
Risk also features in another of Marcus Buckingham’s books that I am currently reading: ‘Go put your strengths to work‘. There is an inherent risk in trying to identify your own strengths and then use them. You might get it wrong – what you think is a strength may be an illusion or a delusion! You may correctly identify strengths but then be unable to use them in your current situation – what then? Do you negotiate a new role, or look for a new organisation to work for, or step out on your own?
The book offers a six-step approach to capturing, clarifying and confirming your strengths. By noting what you love and what you loathe in your tasks over a week and then analysing exactly what made you love or loathe it, you build up a picture of when you excel and when (and why) you don’t. Buckingham offers other tools to help confirm those really are your strengths.
Then comes another risk. Can you stop doing those things that are not your strength – that you really don’t like doing and are not good at doing? What is the risk to you, your reputation, your team, your organisation? Is there someone else who can do well what you can’t do very well? Or does it need doing anyway?
In previous organisations where I worked, the greatest challenge was to ask “what can we stop doing?” There is almost always more to do – but to stop doing something? And of course, if you just take on more and more, that’s a certain route to burn-out. It’s a critical issue for many not-for-profit and charitable organisations faced with ever increasing demands on limited resources, both human and financial.
What is a risk worth taking for you today?
Ref: Go put your strengths to work. M Buckingham (2007). ISBN 0743263294
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