When doing risk analysis, engineers have no problem identifying potential problems – answering the “what could go wrong?” question.  The difficulty is with the mitigation plan – “How can we prevent it?”

Going over this problem in many coaching sessions, I discovered one reason why this is so

Engineers skip the middle step, of this three step process:

• What can go wrong?
• Why would it happen?
• How can we prevent it (or at least lessen its impact)?

Intellectually, it makes sense.  If a risk has actually occurred, it’s now a problem.  The normal engineering response is to perform a root cause analysis: “Root out the cause –the solution will be obvious” my first boss used to say.

Most companies have risk management processes.  And most teams follow these processes fairly well.  Why is it, that with same risk management process, some teams succeed at avoiding big problems, and while other teams fail to do so repeatedly?

I am sure there are many reasons – but I have noticed one that is not often mentioned.

Failing teams have a culture of risk-avoidance.  Successful teams have a risk-embracing culture.  They are diametrically opposed – and it affects how they deal with risk.