Description:
This interactive, facilitated workshop explores common and populist phrases within risk assessment and management to understand why we make them so complicated and how we could improve risk communication, assessment, and management.
What makes this workshop different:
Rather than teaching vocabulary so that you feel you ought to use it, this workshop works with you to analyze why we use so much vocabulary and how it might inhibit our risk-related work. Without directing what should and should not be used, this workshop instead facilitates discussion on the meaningfulness and meaninglessness of some risk management phrases and jargon, especially as applied to risk assessment and risk communication.
Key objectives:
- To facilitate discussions about how we discuss risk.
- To understand better how risk-related vocabulary helps and hinders risk communication, assessment, and management.
- To inspire action for improving risk communication, assessment, and management.
Learning outcomes:
- Deeper and broader understanding of common risk vocabulary and critiques of it.
- Improved ability to question and discuss risk terminology for application.
- Expanded repertoire for communicating, assessing, and managing risk and risk characteristics.
Who should attend:
Risk academics, practitioners including risk assessors and risk managers, students, and members of the public interested in delving into meanings of risk and how we express it, to seek improvements.
Agenda:
Part 1: This session establishes a baseline for understanding risk and applying these fundamental understandings. A variety of concepts are explored, recognizing that there is no single answer. Rather, people have their own risk interests for definitions and applications with the importance being to recognize differences and to communicate within them.
30 minutes: What is risk?
30 minutes: Risk descriptors and communicating them.
30 minutes: Applications for risk assessment and risk management.
15 minutes: Break
Part 2: This session dives more deeply into the discussions from Part 1 by analyzing the baselines for specific examples within risk vocabulary and application. The focus is using risk knowledge and action to prevent and avoid crisis. This approach overcomes the negative framings and emotions associated with crisis, while saving lives and money by not having crises.
40 minutes: Risk specifics: Black swans, grey rhinos, and red herrings.
30 minutes: More than risk as a crisis.
15 minutes: Break
Part 3: This session consolidates Parts 1 and 2 by placing the risk insights into wider contexts of how risk communication, assessment, and management could be applied. Nothing needs to be ‘lost in translation’. Instead, differences can continue while developing common ground for improving risk vocabulary and its use in risk assessment, management, and communications.
30 minutes: Connecting risk to sustainability (especially for risk assessment and management).
20 minutes: Summary and actions