Sensemaking. This is the answer to my question in my blog Extracting Teeth about why risk workshops should deliver the success your audience craves. Yes, they identify risks to help us understand the uncertainty surrounding the objectives we wish to achieve. However, in doing so, we are helping the business make sense of a crazy world.

We should not be extracting information from a reluctant team, nor should we be collecting risks to report to the Audit and Risk Committee to get a pat on the back as a job well done. We should, no MUST, be helping the team to make sense of their world so they can make better and better decisions. We must provide insights to challenge them, to open their eyes.

My favourite insight tools are:

• Stakeholder Analysis to identify key opportunities or vulnerabilities associated with key stakeholders that have not previously been identified by the management team. Sample.
• PESTLE Analysis to conduct or update the organisations previous environmental scans to help establish current and emerging challenges for the organisation. Sample.
• My Capability Analysis which is a method for assessing internal performance capability by identifying strengths and weaknesses across the five key building blocks of an organisation – Strategy, People, Processes, Assets and Culture. Sample.

If you use these types of tools to provide insights and open eyes, you will provide more value than ever before. You will have a seat at the table as a highly respected facilitator of critical conversations that help ensure the future success of your organisation. 

Who would not want that?