Managing Non-Content Risks: I

When we undertake tasks in organizations, we face risks. The most obvious risks are those that are most closely related to the task at hand. These risks, which we might call content risks include factors such as technological unknowns, resource availability, and competition. But there are other risks, often overlooked, that can dramatically influence our chances for success.

One of these is risk management risk, which is the risk that the risk management process is flawed, due to such factors as organizational political correctness, organizational blind spots, or the risk that political phenomena render certain risks invisible to risk managers.

Here are some examples of non-content risks, with suggestions for managing them. In this Part I, we emphasize risk sources related to perceptions.

Misplaced or excessive focus

Typically, organizations have in place processes that maintain focus on what they do well. For example, approvals are required to allocate resources to forward-looking initiatives. But some organizations are excessively zealous about maintaining focus, and some are mistaken about where that focus should be. For instance, organizations that need to undertake efforts to adopt new technologies to serve their existing customers sometimes refrain from doing so because of advocacy by those representing customers most resistant to change.

Advocates of advanced initiatives would do well to protect their activities from notice until their relevance is evident to all, easily explained, and easily defended. Working demonstrations are especially useful.

Resentment bred by success

We rarely consider risks associated with success. But here's one: your effort is so successful and appealing that people seek to join your team. Having to decline these offers because of insufficient resources isn't much of a problem, because people do understand that issue. The more difficult problem is the resentment such success can engender on the part of potential political adversaries.

When appropriate,Advocates of advanced initiatives
would do well to protect their
activities from notice until their
relevance is evident to all devise plans for dealing with such challenges. One helpful guideline: don't publicize your success internally unless the publicity materially aids the effort and you have political strength sufficient to withstand challenges.

Unsustainable loads

The term "unsustainable load" usually evokes thoughts of overload and burnout. Certainly, high loads are unsustainable. But low loads can also be unsustainable. Sustainability of a given workload is in part determined by perceived differences between one's own workload and the workloads of colleagues and peers.

Loads much higher, or much lower, than cultural norms are unsustainable in the long term. High loads cause burnout and bailout; low loads attract those with agendas other than your own, and risk losing people (and stakeholders) from boredom and idleness. Strive for workloads near but slightly above the cultural norm.

Next time, we'll turn our attention to risks arising from organizational politics.   Next issue in this series   Top    Next Issue

Is every other day a tense, anxious, angry misery as you watch people around you, who couldn't even think their way through a game of Jacks, win at workplace politics and steal the credit and glory for just about everyone's best work including yours? Read 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics, filled with tips and techniques for succeeding in workplace politics. More info

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Project Management:

The Politics of the Critical Path: II

The Critical Path of a project is the sequence of dependent tasks that determine the earliest completion date of the effort. We don't usually consider tasks that are already complete, but they, too, can experience the unique politics of the critical path.

Projects as Proxy Targets: I

Some projects have detractors so determined to prevent project success that there's very little they won't do to create conditions for failure. Here's Part I of a catalog of tactics they use.

How We Waste Time: I

Time is the one workplace resource that's evenly distributed. Everyone gets exactly the same share, but some use it more wisely than others. Here's Part I of a little catalog of ways we waste time.

Unresponsive Suppliers: I

If we depend on suppliers for some tasks in a project, or for necessary materials, their performance can affect our ability to meet deadlines. What can we do when a supplier's performance is problematic, and the supplier doesn't respond to our increasingly urgent pleas for attention?

Rational Scope Management

In project management, rational, responsible scope management helps us focus on the task at hand. But rational scope management lets us adapt our work to changes in external factors, and changes in our understanding of the problem.

See also Project Management and Project Management for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming April 23: On Planning in Plan-Hostile Environments: I

In most organizations, most of the time, the plans we make run into little obstacles. When that happens, we find workarounds. We adapt. We flex. We innovate. But there are times when whatever fix we try, in whatever way we replan, we just can't make it work. We're working in a plan-hostile environment. Available here and by RSS on April 23.

And on April 30: On Planning in Plan-Hostile Environments: II

When we finally execute plans, we encounter obstacles. So we find workarounds or adjust the plans. But there are times when nothing we try gets us back on track. When this happens for nearly every plan, we might be working in a plan-hostile environment. Available here and by RSS on April 30.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenfHlRlTgqCIXkUHBTner@ChacrEuHRQPYVKkOucGfoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info