Organisations are always concerned about risk management. However when developing and implementing risk management the role of people is often either taken for granted or simply forgotten.

People are critical for risk management. How does risk management happen? Answer: The awareness and actions of people. Where is the greatest risk in organisations? Answer: People.

The steps in developing a risk management system need to include:

1. Role definition; Build risk management into every role across the organisation.  Be sure to capture the complexity of each role at each organisation level.

2. Assess how well your people can manage risk within the context of their individual roles

3. Develop an organisation wide Risk Management Profile.

4. Plan and organise learning and development for people.

5. Monitor people’s behaviour.

6. Take action to improve the capability of the organisation and individual people to manage risk.

Dallas Burgess

© Organisation Renewal Pty Limited 2008

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What is a Change Silo?

A change silo is created when there is a functional change across an organisation. For example, Finance changes the responsibility for budget preparation. The change involves moving from a centralised corporate responsibility to a regional decentralised responsibility. The change silo exists because finance only considers the technical financial requirements and fails to consider the complexity of the total organisation context.

The following possible unintended effects are:

{    Management resistance because of fears that the organisation’s positive culture, mission and values will be compromised

{    Budget outcomes are second-rate due to a failure to adjust delegations, organisation reporting lines, roles and people capabilities

{    Conflicts between new information technology requirements and how people traditionally obtain information and create knowledge to achieve results

How to avoid Change Silos

1. Design small change steps with clear milestones.

1. Include in each change step considerations for all the major organisation context factors:

{    Strategy

{    Culture, values, mission

{    Organisation structure

{    Roles, skills, people

{    Processes

{    Technology

1. At each milestone evaluate how the change is progressing within the total organisation context

1. Continually adjust and synchronise the major organisation context factors that determine success

Dallas Burgess

© Organisation Renewal Pty Limited 2008

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