Bryan’s Blog

Hard Choices

Hard choices slow us down. Last week I wrote about ensuring staff understand the organisation’s appetite for risk to speed up decision making. I have also been heard to say that helping organisations articulate their appetite for risk is one of the hardest things I am asked to do. Why? Because it is hard to

Modifying your DNA

No, not yours, your organisation’s! When I engage with senior leaders on their appetite for risk, I talk about embedding it in the DNA of the organisation. Why? Because it is critical for organisational agility. Decision support tools, like risk assessments, help people make better decisions. However, the key to organisational agility is faster decision

Selling Ice to Eskimos

“It’s like selling ice to Eskimos” is a great saying. If you are not familiar with it, it is used to explain that something is very hard to sell. On the other hand, the saying “He/she could sell ice to Eskimos” means they are a very, very good salesperson. Selling risk management is a bit

Painting Murals

I have long been speaking about painting pictures to influence others. One of the great things that has come out of the pandemic has been the successful shift to online learning and online facilitating that so many of us have made. In the online environment painting pictures is quicker, easier and can be more compelling than using

Implementing through doom and gloom

Four years ago I wrote about Implementing in the Dark. In it I pointed out that the scorecard for executive teams when it comes to major, strategic decisions is pretty poor. With fail rates estimated between 40 and 50%. I went on to say that much of it can be explained because leaders were implementing in