Full Risk, Are You Ever Willing To Take It?
Assessing risk can feel complicated. It probably is. Are you willing to take full risk, or do you try to cut it in half?
All of life includes risk. Risk means you’re not guaranteed an exact outcome.
You take a risk leaving your home and driving to work. You take a risk with the unknown menu item at the restaurant. In the meeting, there is risk in speaking up.
Success, or not, depends on the risk you are willing to take.
Risk is also often connected to money or time.
Business operations have to weigh the risk. What is the risk to ship, should it be overnight, or the slower method? What is the risk of the new hire?
Promising when the product will be finished or the service is completely delivered involves some risk. Expected quality has some risk.
How far do you go? How much or how deep? What is tolerable? What can you afford?
Full Risk
It is a very scary place for many people. Big changes, life changes, expensive changes, and things that cost time.
Do you take risk in your job?
Are you willing to tactfully and appropriately challenge the process?
What is riskier, speaking up when you see something going astray, or staying quiet and watching it unfold in a costly or catastrophic disaster?
Weighing risk is often the most difficult part.
Many people want to play it safe.
Do you go in halfway? Is that safe? Somethings in life aren’t halfway.
You can’t halfway turn on the lights, dimmer switches don’t count.
You can’t get halfway married, not really.
Perhaps you can go halfway across a narrow bridge, but you’ll never get to the other side. And worse, you might get stuck there for a while.
Sometimes you have to go full risk.
Are you willing?
It won’t be completely safe.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
