Risk? Of course. Most everything we do has some risk associated with it. I promise I won't go into a diatribe of the seemingly weird world we find ourselves in where we try to insure ourselves from all risk, whether by insurances of all kinds, product disclosures or avoidances. Nope. I want to focus on risk in our workplaces. The kind of risk that people worry about when considering doing something different. The risk many times associated with making changes.

 

Risk can be defined many ways, but I'm going basic - risk is the potential of losing something of either perceived or real value. Typically in our work environments the values are job status, reputation, financial growth or impairment for us personally or the organization. These values can be enhanced or lost when taking risks. The intentional interaction with uncertainty recognizes that an action taken will have a potentially unpredictable, unmeasurable and uncontrollable outcome. Risk is the consequence of action taken in spite of uncertainty and in business, just like in life we measure the risk as best as we can.

 

The body of knowledge is vast in this area and for good reason. Everyone wants to be good at measuring risk, but it's unbelievably subjective and many times it's held so deep in our subconscious that we don't even know what the driving forces are. The study of risk helps add more definition and measurement in hopes of lessening negative impacts. And trust me on this one; there's a whole lot more written on mitigating risk than there is on its benefits. Go figure.

When we're working in teams and building consensus, trying to negotiate transactions or paths of action, introducing a new product or service, we must always consider the perception of risk as well as those that can be quantified.  Tough work! I heard it put really well the other day as a team was "pitching" their idea to potential investors. They said, "Our job here today is to reduce your perception of risk." Think about that. Think about how hard that task is. Think about how perfectly stated that was. People can and will only move or make a change when they perceive a level of risk they are comfortable with. Your job is to get them there and to do so you have to tackle perceptions. Not an easy task.  So here are 6 things to keep at the top of your mind each time you're in the position to minimize the perception of risk...and isn't that most every day?

1. Risks taken voluntarily are better than those over which someone has little or no control.
2. The more complex a situation, the higher the perception of risk. Hint: Break things down.
3. Familiarity with the subject matter breeds confidence.
4. The severity of consequences affects risk perceptions.
5. Continually solicit, identify and find ways to relate to people's concerns.
6. Provide factual information in a form and fashion based on identified needs.

Trust is the best thing to mitigate risk. Build trust in every part of any plan. The more trust there is, the lower a perceived risk. Don't pretend to know someone else's perception of risk. Be willing to ask people to share their concerns so together you can determine how to best manage the risk. If the risk can't be mitigated to a manageable level, accept that the "pitch," the "deal," the "change," the "product" doesn't have a chance!