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Posts Tagged ‘prioritize’

I’ve been playing quite a bit of Angry Birds ever since I got my Samsung Galaxy Tab for my birthday. I love this game.

The objective of course is for birds (each with their unique strengths) to destroy the structures –  where all the pigs who have stolen the birds’ eggs –  are hiding. When a new level is presented one looks at the weaknesses of structure and the order of the birds in the queue; then one decides where and when to strike. Often you want the Yellow bird next to smash through the wood but you have the Black one or the Red one in the sling shot. And while it is not immediately obvious to the player what to do with that bird at that moment, it becomes apparent that the birds have it figured out and are lined up that way for a reason.

This is Angry Bird risk management.

Despite being on a suicide mission to destroy the evil pigs, they are not going in blindly. They are strategic. These birds are crafty. They know the reward of saving the eggs outweighs the risk to their own lives. The birds have looked at the tables.

So while there is catastrophic amounts of health and safety risk to the birds (if they miss their target they die in vane before another team of Red, Red, Yellow and Blue birds queues up and tries again), it is clear to me that the Angry Birds are practicing intelligent risk management.

Meeting our organizational objectives is not without risks; like the birds we increase the likelihood of success with careful planning, prioritization and execution in treating these risks.

(Photo courtesy of SardonicSalad.com)

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The key word is prioritize. With ERM, we identify and assess risks, but only so we can use the data to prioritize on a portfolio basis where we should spend or not spend our limited resources. There is a cost of action and a cost of inaction and ERM helps us make intelligent and informed choices.

Unfortunately, organizations and people often make decisions about the risks they are going to treat without data, spending too much money on the wrong things and not enough on the right things.

Prioritize.

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