ORM: Your Life Could Depend On It...

"In America, we celebrate the virtues of the quiet hero--the modest man who does this duty without complaint or expectation of praise; the man who listens closely for the call of his country, and when she calls, he answers without reservation, not for fame or reward, but for love."  John McCain - This I Believe

Is it better to be smart, than lucky?  Be prepared: know your limits, know your surroundings and be safe. Your life and your team depends on it.

Thinking through the risks you will take on your next mission, in business and personally, can sometimes provide new insights and learning for a more positive future.

When was the last time you and your team, worked through all of the potential hazards or risks to a particular project? Are you just operating on luck?

Deliberate Operational Risk Management (ORM) uses a verified process, that can be applied in many day to day scenarios.

Whether you are in the Board Room, the Conference Room, the Locker Room or the Ready Room, you have to think ahead about your intended mission and plan for all contingencies.

In general, these are the key steps to the ORM process:

• Identify hazards:  Conduct an operational and preliminary hazard analysis.
• Assess hazards:  Determine the degree of risk in terms of severity and probability.
• Make risk decisions.
• Develop controls for the hazard to reduce the risk while determining residual risk. Once the controls are in place, make the right decision to determine whether the risk is acceptable for the benefit.
• Implement controls:  If the benefit of the mission is worth the risk, apply the controls to the lowest risk level.
• Supervise:  The decision maker should enforce the controls set and remain alert for changes.

Anticipate the risks and hazards. Prepare for the possible. Prevent the inevitable.  Share relevant stories.

"The most sobering story came from the next person in our circle, who told us about a kayaking trip he took on his 21st birthday. Again, the notice was short, and he didn’t give himself time to prepare.

The river got choppy shortly after he and his friends began their adventure, and his kayak flipped. Rolling over in a kayak is a common occurrence, but he was not adequately trained to recover. After three failed attempts to right himself, he reached for the pull cord to get out of his kayak.

The pull cord was nowhere to be found. In his haste to prepare for the trip, he had tucked the cord inside the rubber skirt of his kayak.

“At the time, I thought, ‘that’s it, I’m dead,’” he said.  He had been submerged for about 45 seconds.

He changed his mind a few seconds later and tore frantically at the kayak’s skirt to free himself. After struggling for several more seconds, he pulled himself out and swam to safety."

And maybe even more important, relive those times and events where it all came apart and you were in danger of missing the deadline, losing the game, or risking injury or worse.

That is when you truely realize, that "Operational Risk Management" (ORM) is something that has to become almost second nature.

Your life and your colleague to the left or right of you, could depend on it...