When you drive, assuming you’re a prudent driver, you slow down when the visibility on the road ahead gets worse—because you don’t want to drive faster than you can see.
But when the visibility improves and you can see the road ahead with clarity, you speed up.
Other factors that affect how fast you drive include:
- The traffic information on the radio has warned of congestion half a mile ahead
- The temperature gauge on your car’s dashboard indicates the engine temperature is rising
- There are a number of drivers around you, and one or two are driving erratically
- You recently had a service on your car and replaced or repaired your brakes
In other words, when you have more information you’re able to make better decisions on whether it’s safe to drive faster. With that information, you can also decide to take an alternate route (to avoid the congestion) or even to take the train (because your brakes need repair).
The information you need includes data about:
- Current performance and trends (such as the engine temperature level or the quality of your brakes)
- Risk information, providing insights into what you may find on the road ahead (such as congestion or an accident caused by an erratic driver)
You need both performance and risk information. Some see risk management as being how you identify and address the “big” things (like collapsed bridges) that could derail your plans. But risk management is really about how you address uncertainty about the road ahead (including potholes). As defined in the global risk management standard, risk is the effect of uncertainty on objectives (ISO 31000:2009).
Some people decide on a destination and route, and commit to an arrival time, with only minimal information. But that’s unwise.
It’s critical to integrate risk management and an understanding of relevant risks into the setting of performance objectives and strategies. Otherwise, there’s a high likelihood that you’ll have set unattainable goals or devised a suboptimal strategy for achieving them.
Similarly, it’s critical to ensure you continue to understand and act on risks as you journey. Integrate risk management into performance management.
Otherwise, you may be driving faster than you can see.
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