A financial advisor once told me that when she takes on creatives she makes them do the risk profile first. It’s faster, apparently. Otherwise they bang on about being risk-averse when they’re clearly not. They weren’t disingenuous, she said. Just too used to rolling with risk to notice it’s a choice.[1]
They’re not alone. Many of the leaders I work choose risk over safety, and are encouraged to do so. It’s enabled them to achieve great things – from cross-industry collaboration[2], to launching businesses, to producing life-saving vaccines.[3]
These are big wins. But there’s a flipside to rolling with risk. It can become harder to devote attention to the risks you can’t choose, or that don’t loom large but still consume energy. Or indeed, to those that don’t seem in the least bit risky to you, but but absolutely do to your team. And whether you notice them or not, they all feed into your overall capacity for risk.
Notice what you choose
Noticing is the simplest and least glitzy of superpowers. But it can prove revelatory. So pay attention to the risks you’re taking, or asking your team to take. What are they? How risky are they? And were they chosen or imposed?
That balance between chosen and unchosen matters. It can influence not just how many risks you take but their nature, as well as the effort you invest. Plus it’s hard to take more of the risks you want if you’re already at capacity with ones you don’t.
🧐 Get curious about your unchosen risks
Some unchosen risks are a response to uncertainties beyond your control. Like how far to embrace AI.[4] Whatever you choose is risky, no one knows all the risks, and we're probably worrying about the wrong ones anyway.
Some risks will be consciously chosen – just not by you. Like the restructure that landed one of my coachees with an extremely risky strategy. They hadn’t chosen it, but were still responsible for its successful delivery.
Either way, get curious about where you’re experiencing unchosen risks in your work, home, health, family, community, environment, or elsewhere. Look beyond the obvious, too. What’s slipping under your radar? What are you downplaying even though it’s consuming energy?
Get curious too about where you can exercise choice within unchosen risks. How might you influence their progress or outcomes? And which risks might even give you unexpected space to play?[5] (Like that coachee of mine, who capitalised on that risk-everywhere moment to chase a different market.)
🧐 Get curious about your chosen risks
Intentional risk can be thrilling. So get curious about where you’re choosing to take risks. What are your big fat gambles? Where are you running test—learn—adapt style experiments for swift, incremental progress?[6] How are they shaping your capacity for risk? How are they strengthening your resilience?
Get curious too about the balance between those big and small risks. Which might you dial up or down? Where might you dial up your chosen risks in response to fewer unchosen ones?
🧐 Get curious about your team’s risk slate
What feels risky to you might not to your team. But also: vice versa.[7] So get curious, about the team – together and individually. How much risk are they navigating? What’s the balance between chosen and unchosen? Who is drained by unchosen risk outside work? How might you reduce or redistribute some of their chosen risks?
Get curious about where the team lacks risk, too. Which risks are they aching to take? How might you be getting in their way? How might you deepen their resilience to unchosen risk? Who is craving a risk beyond your team? And who is choosing risks for whom?
Give yourself a risk assessment (not that sort)
You’ll find chosen and unchosen risks everywhere in response to this VUCA, post-pandemic, gen AI world. And since merely being human comes with its own mess, delight and tragedy, there’ll be plenty in the analogue world, too.
So what are your current risks?[8] Which apply to you, which to your team? Which are chosen, or not, and by whom? What’s the balance between them? Getting curious might not change the risks in front of you, but it might help you respond with greater clarity and intention.
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FOOTNOTES
1 Unlike making pension plans, apparently. 🤷♀️
2 Like, memorably, music streaming and healthcare – bewildering, but genius.
3 Being able to pass on the thanks of the medic who vaccinated me was an unexpected delight amidst pandemic awfulness.
4 You could not use it, but how and how much are more common quandries. And most of us are already using it anyway.
5 Which I attempt to make the case for here. I’ll leave you to your own conclusions on its success.
6 Intriguingly, it’s not uncommon for teams to head straight for the Massive Risk because de-risking it with smaller experiments feels… too risky. 🙃
7 Conversation with social media manager the other day:
Them: I’m terrified of public speaking.
Me: I’m terrified of social media.
Them: 🤦
Fear isn’t the same as risk, but it’s often provoked by perceived risk.
8 A quick, frequent and current audit is often more insightful than the big, unwieldy review. Besides, while it’s tempting skip ahead to the sunlit uplands, what you’re experiencing now will inevitably influence what comes next.