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Leading Responsibly to Mitigate Risk
Sitting next to me on a flight from Denver to Houston was a mountain biker who had just taken his girlfriend out on his favourite trails for the first time. At the end of the ride, he asked: “So what do you think?”
“How can you ride so close to all those cliffs?”
“What cliffs?”
Risk is a matter of perception. How you perceive the world plus what you focus on determines the decisions you make, how you lead yourself and others and the risk you find acceptable. Context is critical in shaping focus, including a-what-is-in-it-for-me, versus a higher shared goal with social benefit. The system is directing decision-makers more than an intentional choice to engage initiative and accept responsibility to restore vitality to workplaces.
To a successful entrepreneur, outlook on risk is mitigated by data, making assumptions explicit, plus relying on gut feel. A conscious entrepreneur would design the decision-making process to address hardwired human bias to compensate for being human. From the perspective of a company executive, who has built value in the company over time and has a personal reputation at stake, risk is something to avoid. More mature companies will unconsciously choose to do nothing over adapting to today’s realities learning on stability for security instead of responsiveness. Complacency makes…
