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Matthew Leitch’s lastest survey holds some interesting findings for anyone seeking approval for a new project and program in an area of high uncertainty. Amongst his findings:
- Effect 1: Obvious higher priority activities and uncertainties tend to have been thought about more already, reducing the chance of finding further worthwhile improvements. The focus should be on changes and on activities whose importance has previously been underestimated.
- Effect 2: New ideas are more likely to lead to new improvements than ideas that have already been considered and perhaps are in use already.
Visit his website to read the full findings and the survey results.
Matthew Leitch is author of Gower Publishing’s Intelligent Internal Control and Risk Management.
I sometimes find it hard not to allow personal prejudice to bias my response to management ideas which is why I’ll limit myself to a simple ‘very interesting’, rather than anything more effusive, in response to Matthew Leitch’s detailed piece ‘Risk Management and Beyond Budgeting’. If you’re beginning to question the traditional control associated with annual budgeting then do read this piece! Matthew Leitch is author of Intelligent Internal Control and Risk Management.
Gower author and Chartered Business Psychologist Sharon De Mascia has recently been writing and commenting in the press. De Mascia has commented in The Guardian on depression at work and issues of mental health in the workplace. She has also been advising businesses on how they can manage change in these uncertain times.
Sharon De Mascia is a Chartered Business Psychologist and a HR/HRD professional. She has extensive project management experience and is Prince2 qualified as well as being an experienced coach. Sharon has 20 years experience of delivering change management and other organisational initiatives across both public and private sectors. Sharon is an assessor for the British Psychological Society and the Health Professions Council, and an examiner for the International Baccalaureate in Psychology. She is also the Director of ‘Cognoscenti’, a business psychology consultancy. www.cognoscenti.uk.com.
Sharon De Mascia’s book Project Psychology is out this month.
David Hillson (www.risk-doctor.com) will be presenting at the “Making Risk Work” Summit, hosted by Penny Pullan and Ruth Murray-Webster in the week beginning 11 July 2011. This five-day virtual Summit comprises a series of recorded interviews with risk experts. It’s a great way to hear some leading speakers on risk without leaving your home or office. David’s talk covers “Developing sustainable risk management“, discussing some of the main barriers and enablers to making risk management work, and how to maintain energy levels throughout the risk process.
Click here to register in advance for free, or Contact Penny for full details.
David Hillson is Author of Exploiting future Uncertaintly and Managing Risk in Projects, both published by Gower.
We will be attending and have a stand at the 2011 CounterFraud and Forensic Accounting Conference on June 13th in Portsmouth, Hampshire. This one day event is run by Portsmouth University’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies.
More information about this conference can be found here 2011 CounterFraud and Forensic Accounting Conference.
You will also be able to meet these Gower authors who will be speaking at the conference:
- Dick Russill - A Short Guide to Procurement Risk
- Nigel Iyer – A Short Guide to Fraud Risk, and
- Garry Honey – A Short Guide to Reputation Risk
In most people’s eyes, risk is ‘bad’; something to be avoided, transferred or controlled. But that’s a dangerously one-sided argument. Matthew Leitch’s article ‘How to be Positive About Risk’ offers a very pragmatic perspective to help you redress the balance; understand the dangers of regarding risk as unwaveringly a bad thing and overlooking the opportunities that unexpected, positive events can bring. Matthew Leitch is author of Intelligent Internal Control and Risk Management.
‘Risk Doctor‘ David Hillson will be attending the PMI Dublin Congress on 9-11 May and presenting a paper on “Risk Energetics”, based on chapter seven of his book Managing Risk in Projects.
To give a taster – The full version of Chapter two ‘risk and projects’ can be read here.
Projects are risky undertakings, and modern approaches to managing projects recognise the central need to manage the risk as an integral part of the project management discipline. Managing Risk in Projects places risk management in its proper context in the world of project management and beyond, and emphasises the central concepts that are essential in order to understand why and how risk management should be implemented on all projects of all types and sizes, in all industries and in all countries.
”This is risk management that recognises and works with the complexity of business strategy and decision making…This is a practical book and a serious introduction to the area of risk management in projects.’ - Carol Long, MCQI CQP, Quality World
‘…this is in fact a little gem of a book, bursting with information on every page…I believe there is a wide audience for this book, ranging from those governing projects through to those managing and supporting projects. Anyone interested in implementing or improving their current approach to risk would also find this guide a useful addition to their library.’ – John Fisher, Risk Management Professional
It is in no way scientific but I do find that book sales at the Institute of Risk Management‘s Global Forum (the 2011 Forum took place earlier this week in Liverpool) offer some insight into what risk managers are concerned about. This year it was pretty much honours even between quantified risk management and qualified risk management … and there were plenty of people asking about material on managing uncertainty. The top selling titles at this year’s event were: Andy Garlick’s Estimating Risk; David Hancock’s Tame, Messy and Wicked Risk Leadership and David Hillson’s Exploiting Future Uncertainty.
You definitely need a clear understanding of these three concepts and the differences between them, if you’re running any kind of projects. David Cleden’s article on page four of the current newsletter of the UK Chapter of the PMI takes a wonderfully pragmatic approach to all three and encourages you to use each of them intelligently. David Cleden is author of Managing Project Uncertainty and Bid Writing for Project Managers.
In his article on page five of the latest PMIUK Newsletter, David Hillson is understandably exercised about the pitfall of confusing high impact risks, with very low likelihood of occurring, with those catastrophic events that are genuinely unpredictable. I think most managers who are unfamiliar with risk management struggle with the concept of very low probability. David’s articles are always thoughtful and always a pleasure to read. David Hillson is author of Exploiting Future Uncertainty, Managing Risk in Projects, Managing Group Risk Attitude, and Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude.
