Tag: risk

  • Wicked problems: How we get stuck knowing risks exist but not knowing what to do about them.

    Wicked problems: How we get stuck knowing risks exist but not knowing what to do about them.

    One thing I often hear from my students is that some of the research we read about risk management is “obvious”–we know climate change is happening, especially. They are surprised we aren’t doing more to address it. But knowing a risk exists and doing something about it are two very different and very large conversations.…

  • Why are we calling emergencies “incidents”?

    Why are we calling emergencies “incidents”?

    This week the AP style book suggested that writers should not refer to emergencies as “incidents.” This caused some good chatter among emergency and risk management professionals, who say incident all the time, so much so that the word is encoded in systems for managing emergencies (FEMA encourages all emergency management organizations to use a…

  • Should you be assessing risk like NASA?

    Should you be assessing risk like NASA?

    There are a variety of metrics we can use to assess the risks and benefits of decisions. Informally, I love a good pro-con list, but for NASA, risk assessment is a matter of life, death, and millions of dollars, so it’s unsurprising that they have a method for rating risk scope and likelihood. Here are…

  • Book Club: Normal Accidents

    Welcome to Risk Book Club! Where I read and summarize arguments about risk so you don’t have to. Today we’re reading Normal Accidents by Charles Perrow (1984).  The bar summary: Most of us live in a world of trying to avoid accidents, but Charles Perrow says industrial society is so complex we might as well…