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Welcome to the second edition of 'Ruminations' by John Salter. 'Ruminations' is a newsletter sharing my reflections on what ought to have been known - and done - about risk, and its management.

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Do I really "need" that?

A principle I learnt early in my life was to apply the test of "sure we could but why would we want to?". I think this is an interesting question because it challenges those who assume - and it seeks to explore the context of "we".
It seeks a rationale - a business case - and it is to such questions around #needs assessment and #gap analysis that I turn my reflections.

Why do people undertake needs assessments / gap analyses?
Intentions vary - from the newly appointed looking for a quick 'health check' to assure themselves they have something to work with - to the confident change manager keen to identify the next 'fitness aspiration' in order to tackle the continually changing - and challenging - future.

one size

Any gap assessment or needs assessment must be fit for purpose - aligned with a "why".

What should be focused on in the first instance is what needs to be assessed - and secondly how it needs to be assessed.

necessary and sufficient

In each instance it is important that the right questions to be addressed are clearly identified and agreed to. This process is about what is necessary to be sufficient - and therefore adequate - in relation to any given context.
How those questions are then best addressed will flow in the conversation.
It might be that all that is required is a straightforward response to a single question - such as how frequently crisis management plans are checked (by desk audit or simulation exercise) and the tool to do so might only need to be a table such as the one below.

b25efeff5bd7f8a7d86962663d98a4c5

It may be a straightforward recognition that crisis management arrangements need support

Or it might be that a more complex series of structured interviews and workshops needs to be organised with key stakeholders.
This is more the case when exploring questions with a wider scope - such as the area illustrated in the executive level reporting graphic below.

a3 Risk Management Fundamentals

How well is risk managed in specific parts of the organisation?

adequateman2

Filter for NECESSARY until you have collated to a threshold of SUFFICIENCY = ADEQUATE

leadership compassedu

A mature feature of good leadership is to avoid being too bound up by "prescribed to standards" approaches. Use their key elements, certainly - but make sure the methodology is "calibrated for context".
How 'mature' is the risk management culture?
How gentle should we be to get the results we need to nurture the right culture? These are the sorts of nuanced questions - questions which [explore context in the first diamond] of the double diamond design - which will enable and empower the organisation to improve.

Establishing Context
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