Peter Taylor
VP Global PMO
Keynote speaker and coach Peter is the author of the number 1 bestselling project management book ‘The Lazy Project Manager,’ along with many other books.
He has built and led some of the largest PMOs in the world with organizations such as Siemens, IBM, UKG, and now Dayforce, where he is the VP Global PMO.
He has also delivered over 500 lectures worldwide in 26 countries and has been described as ‘perhaps the most entertaining and inspiring speaker in the project management world today.’
We all know that every task carries some risk. However, projects are particularly susceptible to risks that can slow down, derail, and, in extreme cases, even stop a project. As such, a means to anticipate and manage such risks is critical. The broader the input to such potential risks, the more that can be expected and planned against. Therefore, the power of collective wisdom is the smart way to go.
What are some of the benefits of Risk Management
Effective risk management enhances project success by minimizing uncertainties while reducing the potential impact of issues arising, ensuring smoother project execution to the point of success.
Without such a risk plan strategy, any issue(s) that arise during a project will potentially significantly impact the time to deliver and a successful project outcome.
All projects need such a risk plan.
Understanding a Risk Management Framework
The key components of a solid risk management framework must include the following risk management steps:
- Risk Identification
A defined and considered list of all risks that can be identified/anticipated through the experience of the key project players.
- Risk Assessment
Assessing each risk using an impact and probability scale to determine its potential consequences for the project and the likelihood of it occurring.
- Risk Response Planning
Based on the risk assessment, what will you/the project team do should the risk become an actual issue threatening the project in some way?
- Risk Monitoring and Control
The process of continuously tracking and recording risks, applying risk mitigation techniques, and recording progression towards resolution.
Project risk management strategies fall into four types:
- Risk avoidance eliminates the risk and can include actions such as modification of plan or scope.
- Risk mitigation to reduce the risk impact, including proactive measures to minimize risk or applying additional resources to control the risk.
- Risk transfer to share the risk with third-party resources or an insurance backstop.
- And finally, the risk acceptance approach acknowledges that nothing can be done about a risk as the cost of any mitigation action is greater than the impact of the risk.
The Hive Mind in Risk Management
I worked with an organization as they grappled with the ongoing challenge of improving their risk management in project management and gaining some real value from project lessons learned.
The problem that they faced was double-edged. Either project managers completed the end-of-project review and submitted copious amounts of data (which was never effectively shared or used), or they bypassed this step completely and recorded nothing (either due to lack of time or lack of perceived value – because of the first issue, lack of effective sharing).
Why drive this from lessons learned? The past experiences of projects can offer significant insights for fellow project managers as they consider their risk assessment at the start of a new project.
Ultimately, the solution was to track, record, and share only one ‘lesson’ from each project. This allowed for a practical scale of knowledge to be shared and offered real value to all project managers. This one lesson answered this simple question: ‘What issue(s) arose that were unexpected, and how did you address this situation?’.
As a result, the organization ended up with a valuable reference for risks that project managers who were about to start their next project to delve into were guided on a) what they might consider for their project and b) how to plan a suitable mitigation strategy.
The collective wisdom was stronger than individual wisdom.
The Hive Mind reduces Risk (and can speed up decision-making)
Imagine you are part of a global project for rolling out a new system that faced a hidden risk—unforeseen integration issues with legacy systems (well, we have all been there, haven’t we?).
The traditional approach to risk management in business is for the appropriate risk team to work together to identify potential risks. However, that team is often quite limited in terms of time and deep knowledge. A consequence could be that something is overlooked, such as the incompatibility of a specific local system.
Alternatively, the hive approach offers a different risk management technique by connecting many more resources for deeper and broader consideration. Powered by a digital platform more than likely (and increasingly an AI-powered platform), multiple people in multiple locations with varied knowledge can be connected to create the start of a risk management plan.
The outcome is that a better understanding is collated faster, more than likely.
Implementing Collective Wisdom in Your Risk Framework
So, what practical steps can you take to embed such a hive-mind thinking in your organization?
By capturing just one key lesson from each project, teams can build a living risk knowledge base that strengthens future planning and decision-making. With the support of today’s AI-powered platforms, such collective wisdom can be collected, analyzed, and applied at an accurate scale. It improves risk awareness and prepares for risk mitigation intelligently, along with improved response times when an issue becomes a risk.
To implement collective wisdom in your risk management framework:
- Encourage open communication, honesty, and cross-functional collaboration (without siloes).
- Use AI and data analytics to supplement people’s input (a powerful combination).
- Conduct regular risk retrospectives (as part of the project close/lessons learned process) to refine risk intelligence and collate risk management examples constantly.
Conclusion
I strongly encourage you and your project teams to adopt a collaborative risk management framework in your organization. The value of connecting more people to such a critical project step is, I hope, easy to see. This, and the rise in digital platforms (with artificial intelligence input these days), will enable you to plan mitigation strategies to a vastly improved level.
Risk management is no longer just about checklists and the occasional expert analysis input (if there is time and availability). Instead, it is about harnessing the collective intelligence of your wider team and subject-matter experts (that of such a rare resource) to anticipate and prepare for risks far more effectively.
By embracing such a hive mind approach, organizations can improve risk management from a static process (what were the risks on my last project, copy and paste…) into a knowledge-driven risk management process that continuously evolves with every project.
The message is clear. The more minds involved, the stronger your risk management strategy becomes.
Take the first step today, foster collaboration, leverage technology, and make risk management a truly shared responsibility.
Your projects and organization will be all the better for it.
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