If you’ve ever had the pleasure of putting many people in a room to discuss and assess risks you’d know that not everyone assesses every risk the same way. To some a particular risk is high, while to others it…
Risk of a short dead dude
In celebration of La Fête Nationale, Bastille Day, on July 14 here is an example of some poor risk management on the part of the British. The late historian Robert Sobel once noted that the “British created a civil service…
Confessions of a risk manager
My 14-year old son recently bought himself a not-so-inexpensive bike with his own money. On the Monday after the purchase he wanted to take the bike to school. I advised against this as he had a pretty lousy bike lock.…
Campers, risk management and bears (oh my!)
There’s an old joke about two campers that are awakened by a hungry bear. The first guy yells ‘run’ but the second guy stops to put on his running shoes on first. The first guy asks if his companion really…
Passwords, LinkedIn and the White Rabbit
With the news this morning that your eHarmony or LinkedIn password was posted on a Russian website, people are frantically changing their passwords today. Or so one hopes. Why all the urgency? Should anyone be concerned that some troublemakers are going…
JPMorgan 24601
Many of us are familiar with Jean Valjean, the protagonist from Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables, made more famous in the 80s thanks to the musical of the same name. In the story, Monsieur Valjean is sent to a prison…
You say risk management and I say shit management
I am always amazed that despite the enormous square footage of our planet and the tiny amount of poop produced by a bird that it is possible for my car to get hit. But it occurs despite how unlikely it…
Under the Dome risk management
In Stephen King’s novel, Under the Dome, a small town in Maine becomes suddenly cut off from the outside world by “an invisible barrier of unknown origin”. If that sounds a bit too much like the Simpsons Movie or…
The Great Plague of London and root causes of risk
One of the hardest parts in documenting your risks is figuring out the root cause of the risk being analyzed. If this is done poorly, we will spend time and money treating the wrong root causes and the risk may…
The Walking Dead and risk management
If there are two things you have noticed about this blog, I often write about zombies and the Moment of Risk Enlightenment. Today’s post combines both. (Note: This post contains spoilers about season two of the Walking Dead.) I was…