We are all leaders, mentors, influencers or decision-makers at some level and we are all responsible for managing the risks and opportunities that our
Karla Gahan, Deputy Head of Risk and Advisory at VinciWorks, will be speaking at the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM) annual conference on 28 March.
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The unthinkable has happened and you’re busy gathering your business continuity team together to manage the incident. You pop your head around the door to the Head of HR and they say they have no idea that they’re meant to be on the team. The Head of Legal says the same. You’re already in a high-pressure situation as time is against you and now you need to explain to these people how the team works when what you really need is for them to mobilise quickly and perform their role.
Many organisations have detailed business continuity plans sitting on their shelves and the board, the auditors and often the insurers are expecting that the team will be able to respond quickly should an incident occur. However, many business continuity teams have never even met, let alone understand their role or what they will need to do in the heat of an incident. Tabletop exercises are an essential part of the business continuity process. However, many organisations may not have the experience or buy-in to conduct this training. Part of the issue in convincing organisations of the true value of these sessions is a lack of understanding of the benefit these exercises can bring.
As part of our commitment to providing our clients with better and more efficient products, we are pleased to announce that we have upgraded Omnitrack’s workflows. This upgrade improves many aspects of the system and simplifies workflows without changing any of the current functionality. The new version will feel instantly familiar and straightforward to existing users and should not require any new training.
VinciWorks’ Omnitrack is a fully flexible, fully customisable data collection tool that can be used by businesses to capture, track and manage any type of information, from registers and assessments to self-reporting forms and notifications. The Omnitrack platform has the versatility and power to log data assets, record complaints and breaches, enable whistleblowing, evidence regulatory compliance and manage other business processes internally, throughout the supply chain or on behalf of independent firms subscribing to outsourced business services.
When making any decision, from deciding what to have for dinner to buying a house, many biases can come into play. The workplace is no different, with unconscious bias affecting decisions on a daily basis. For example, the intern may have a great idea that gets shut down because “she hasn’t even graduated yet”, while the almost-retired customer relations manager may raise an important concern that isn’t taken seriously because “he doesn’t understand the system”.
In this webinar, Karla Gahan and Dean Hughes explored the biases that play a role in the workplace and how the risk of those biases clouding judgment can be mitigated.
The risk identification process should involve your entire organisation, hence the phrase “everyone is a risk manager”. This means conducting surveys and interviews, analysing the responses and drafting a risk register based on those results. This is known as the transparent risk identification process because it requires everyone in the organisation to be transparent, includes the whole organisation and the results can be shared throughout the company. Here are the four steps to transparent risk identification that we recommend.
Getting buy-in for risk management initiatives from the leadership and getting time with key stakeholders is a huge challenge faced by risk managers. The best way to do this is to start with a survey. This keeps the process brief and concise; it can cut right across the organisation and capture answers from a broad congregation. Using the appropriate tools, this is a quick and easy process and encourages engagement due to it being fully inclusive. A survey can be made available to everyone but be mandatory for those who will be getting a follow-up interview. Sending a survey to everyone promotes the risk management initiative at the organisation and reinforces the idea that everyone is a risk manager and that risk management involves the entire organisation.
On Wednesday 17 October, VinciWorks ran its first risk identification masterclass in an impressive Central London venue, the Law Society. Facilitators, experts Dean Hughes and Karla Gahan, focussed on risk identification, one of the key steps of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). They gave guidance to delegates on how to better facilitate risk conversations, reveal awkward risks and black swans, and present those risks to the leadership with clarity and insight. This class provided delegates with the skills and confidence required to identify risks at a whole new level through a safe and constructive process.
Risk identification is the term used to describe the process of collecting, collating, classifying, refining, aggregating and disseminating risks. It is a critical step in the ERM process and takes place within the context of the risk framework. While one-off workshops and department-wide meetings play a role in risk identification, the process itself is ongoing and should be revisited on a regular basis.
Risk managers have a unique and privileged position in terms of being able to recognise and assist in countering unconscious bias, either explicit or implicit. When assessing and discussing risks, we are given direct access to what happens in all areas of the business and have the opportunity to observe behaviours first hand. When we notice biases as part of our role, we can help to implement measures or nudges that encourage a change in behaviour and improve culture.
Here are some practical techniques that can be used to counter the risk of unconscious bias influencing our business decisions.
While conducting surveys is a standard technique for risk assessments, it is helpful in reducing bias from several perspectives. It helps to focus the conversation in subsequent meetings and elicits a personal view of the subject at hand, thereby avoiding groupthink.
“We’re about to be splashed across the trade press for protecting sexual predators!” The head of marketing said, storming into your office wrapped in panic. You sit her down, make a strong cup of tea, and try to find out a bit more.
An imminent media crisis is about to engulf your company. Numerous former employees have come forward with allegations of harassment against a former chairman of your company. The employees even have records of complaints made against the chairman that were brushed under the carpet. It turns out his behaviour was an open secret for years. Not only did the leadership fail to act, they just threw a gala dinner in honour of his retirement after a lifetime at the company.
What if you could enhance your risk identification process, better facilitate risk conversations, reveal awkward risks and black swans, and present those risks to the leadership with clarity and insight? VinciWorks invites you to attend a risk identification masterclass to learn breakthrough techniques and develop your own risk identification toolkit. This class will provide you with the skills and confidence required to identify risks at a whole new level through a safe and constructive process.
Location: A beautiful Law Society venue in central London (113 Chancery Lane, WC2A 1PL)
Cost: The event will cost £149 per delegate and £99 for each additional delegate.
When making any decision, from deciding what to have for dinner to buying a house, it’s possible that many biases will come into play. For example, a previous deal for a house that fell through may well result in anxieties that it could happen again. Alternatively, the meal you made last week was so good you’re confident you can make it again without using the recipe. While not realising it, perceptions may be subject to certain types of biases that affect our everyday decision making. For risk and compliance managers, it is important to be aware of these biases, how they can affect risk identification and how to limit their role in clouding judgment.
When undertaking risk identification, assessments, or attending risk committee meetings, there is the potential that the biases influencing the outcome of those sessions mean that you are liable to arrive at your conclusions without considering alternatives. This could lead to the failure of identification of key risks. When identifying risks, several biases may come into play:
As a species we have evolved to care about what others think about us; this is at the root of unconscious bias. We want other people to approve of our views and opinions, and so we seek out others who will “confirm” our position. In the context of risk identification, we may only seek the views of people in our organisation who will tell us what we want or expect to hear. By doing this we may fail to capture the full range of risks facing the organisation.