This week I am on a panel at the RiskNZ Risk and Resilient Summit in Auckland, New Zealand, helping to answer this exact question. There is no doubt that Covid-19 gave risk management a huge boost. Is the boost waning? The answer is yes and no.

It’s yes for organisations that now “get it”. Good risk management principles have become part of the culture. It is, “How we do things around here.” For others, risk teams are still battling. Most will not be at fault. Most did not have the support required of senior leaders.

Crises don’t always bring enough of the right change fast enough. Case in point is the Australian Cyclone Reinsurance Pool that started on 1 July 2022. The first attempts at addressing the affordability of insurance in Northern Australia was after Cyclone Tracy in 1974. That was 48 years ago. It was seemingly inevitable given the low population density and the growing cost and frequency of cyclone events.

Taking advantage of a crisis needs speed, value and persuasion. When Covid hit, risk teams globally were called on to help senior leaders with their decision making. Leaders in general needed to work at speed to adapt. Risk teams needed to work equally fast, if not faster, to be ahead of the game. And, most importantly, they added value. They were seen as more valuable than ever before.

The last part of the puzzle to enacting lasting change was to persuade the organisation to lock-in this newfound love of the risk team, by embedding good risk management practices across the organisations policies, frameworks, systems and processes as appropriate. The risk teams that were most successful at this did so by following a mantra of simplicity and the minimisation of red tape.

If you are working hard to change the culture within your organisation – and want to know how to turn  red tape into blue ribbon – grab a copy of my book Persuasive Advising and register for my book launch of Team Think  …  to learn about helping senior leaders make great strategic decisions, whether in crisis or not!