Though I don’t mind calling a risk planning session a ‘worry session’, I wish we could change the tone we use when talking about risk. And I wish we had more opportunities on the risk list. (For example, ‘what if 200 register for our training instead of 50?”)
Don’t we all know of the risk log opened at the beginning of a project, rarely to be glanced at again? But since the flip side of risk is opportunity, and an occurred Risk is an Issue, and a closed Issue is a Decision – couldn’t all of this ‘stuff’ be in one place, open to the whole team, and so much more useful?
Imagine a ‘This Stuff’ list for a project. Like my inbox for my task manager – you can put anything into it, and then when you have time to process it, you can identify it as a Risk, or an Issue, or a Decision, or even a Task. Or maybe what gets on the ‘stuff’ list is an innovative idea, or a suggested ‘kudos’ for someone on the team.
Here’s an template we use that includes a Risks Log, an Issues Log, and a ActionsDecisions Log. Next, I’m going to try changing this so that anyone on the team, even if in a hurry, can add something in a first column (called “Stuff”). Then the leader of the project can own this one log, and process these into categories, and prioritize them, and parse out the tasks related to them. We’d all look at it more often, more people would input to it, and it would really empower us to create better plans and more successful projects.
