It’s interesting how so many things scale in unison. In large organisations there is often talk about silos. But silos exist in small organisations as well. Even for my organisation of three. Me, my EA, Paula and my Relationship Manger, Wendy.

And as you and I know, enterprise risk management is a great tool for breaking down silos. Helping the left hand to know what the right hand is doing through well designed, integrated performance and risk reporting.

And so last week we did some enterprise risk management on our small practice. We looked at the roles each of us play and re-defined the silos we operate in.

You see, silos are great for getting stuff done. They allow us to focus on the objectives of our silo and to be clear on what is in and out of the silo. However, when focusing on our silo we tend to ignore what is happening in the other silos.

After re-defining the roles we each play we then thought about our communication needs. What information needs to flow between the three of us. And therein lies one of the biggest challenges in any organisation, getting the right amount of communication, of the right content, delivered in a way that is as easily digestible and actionable as possible.

Anyone involved in the design of your risk framework should think hard about this challenge. Because getting communication right is the hardest thing to do in life. Period.