Communicating Risk to Get Your Bosses’ Attention

Introduction

One of the simplest and most effective practices to reduce project problems is risk management. However, even when teams perform risk management, getting anyone to pay attention to the risk list can be a challenge.

Communicating risk

Here is an approach that can help you write risks in a format that can be communicated with more punch.

• IF <project level problem occurs> THEN <this problem occurs that the big boss cares about>.

The capital letters for IF and THEN are important to provide a standard visual format that people can read easily.

For example:

• IF requirements are not baselined THEN the delivery deadline cannot be predicted.
• IF we don’t have an agreement signed with the supplier to make them accountable THEN we will not meet our budget.
• IF we don’t allocate time for peer reviews and test to find defects THEN we will pay warranty costs to all 100 clients.

This format helps the project team set risk priorities and train management to ask for risk data routinely since it always includes items they care about. The IF and THEN wording can also be captured as column headings in a spreadsheet.

If you have comments or questions about this article, or your risk practices, contact us for a complimentary chat.

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