How do you encourage colleagues and stakeholders to take risks and learn?

Risk appetite, crucial as it is, serves as the foundation, but cultivating a culture where risks are perceived as opportunities requires further action. Clear communication is key. By demystifying risk and presenting it as an integral component of growth, stakeholders can view it through the lens of informed decision-making rather than fear. Additionally, leaders should demonstrate a commitment to resilience, emphasizing that setbacks are not failures but learning moments. Establishing an environment of psychological safety, where individuals feel supported in their initiatives, can foster an innovative spirit and encourage exploration beyond comfort zones.

Mistakes are the beginning of experience, and that expirence is the begining of the wisdom. Simple! "No Risk, no Gain" but it should be calculated.

In my experience, risk is something you face everyday in every process. If we can make associates understand and identify smaller risks involved in their own processes and can provide solutions on their own or providing guidance to them to mature their processes, it self will show the value add and people start lean thinking. When the healthy competitive spirit starts in every associate and if we can provide proper tools or resources it self will build a risk culture in any organisation.

Make people understand that risk frameworks are made as guidelines for making better decisions and not as tools to control employees

Great question! Encouraging risk-taking and learning in a professional context is all about fostering an environment that embraces failure as a stepping stone to success. One approach could be: "Celebrate the efforts, not just the outcomes. Recognize the courage it takes to take a risk. If it doesn't pan out, highlight the learning opportunity it provides.

Innovation comes with failure. The reality is that in progress, we may also encounter setbacks and trial and error. But it doesn't matter how much we fail; what matters is what we learn from these experiences and how we pursue continuous improvement.

Storytelling is also important for colleagues to share when they have made mistakes, how their colleagues reacted and what the outcome was

The role of mentors, coaches and peers is powerful in this area. Risk taking is not a one person or team act of bravery. An organization that encourages professionals to be open to cold calls by colleagues merely for feedback is an incredible culture that leverages internal know how.

From my experience as a corporate leader and now in my own business, making it fun and tailoring it to the individual's interest helps. It shifts their mindset to possibilities and ideas, rather than what will lose (when people think of risks, it's commonly thought of as the worst thing). Think of young children when they learn, it's full of curiosity, fun, and adventure, not whether they are taking a risk. After implementing this strategy in my world, I started to build confidence in learning, failing, and doing it all over again. This attitude and mindset have given me significant rewards and career success. Try it. What have you got to lose other than have fun and learn?

In my experience this advocates the importance of cultivating a culture of learning within organizations to address the fear of failure and criticism that often deter people from taking risks. This culture places emphasis on viewing mistakes as opportunities for improvement. Such an environment fosters trust, collaboration, curiosity, experimentation, innovation, and adaptation among colleagues and stakeholders. To promote this culture effectively: - Leading by example in risk-taking and learning behaviors. - Recognizing and rewarding risk-taking and learning efforts. - Providing learning resources and opportunities like training, coaching, and mentoring. - Creating spaces for knowledge sharing and reflection.

One element to emphasise here is the power of storytelling and empathy in making risks easily understood. Complex risk assessments and data-driven insights may not resonate with all team members. However, storytelling can distil complex ideas into relatable narratives that can be easily understood and remembered. Likewise, showing empathy towards team members' perspectives can help uncover hidden risks and solutions that may not be obvious otherwise. By tapping into the emotional aspects and making risks relatable, leaders can deepen understanding, and by extension, commitment to risk management processes.

Involve other people in this strategic risk-taking. If you want your team to start taking risks in a given area, make it clear to your team that you're going into this project together, that you understand the risks, and you're standing shoulder to shoulder with them through the entire process. This will show your team that you understand their concerns, but that you're also in the trenches with them.

To develop a positive risk management culture successfully, an organization needs to obtain consensus from all its employees and its internal and external stakeholders. To achieve this, an organization needs to openly communicate the benefits of having effective risk management processes, procedures, and programs. It also needs to eliminate any negative perceptions about risk management as a constraint and strive to promote a positive perception about the potential rewards and bottom-line results risk management can produce for an organization.

Big businesses often rely on delegation to manage a wide range of tasks and functions efficiently. When there's a strong learning culture in place, leaders can delegate with confidence, knowing that their team members are not just executing tasks but actively learning and improving their skills. This empowers employees to take ownership of their roles and make decisions that contribute to the company's success.

Risk reporting is an important factor in the overall risk management process. If the reporting of risks is inaccurate or if the proposed methods and channels are misused, the opportunity for error and oversight of critical risks increases exponentially and can cause unforeseen liabilities. An organization’s risk management program needs to be continually reviewed and updated. Risk management will only become integrated within an organization if the importance of an effective enterprise-wide risk communication process is mandated and complied with.

It's the most valuable part of the risk acceptance process. In most cases avoiding risk is result of avoiding money losses and restrictions for top managers in case of failure (risk execution). That's a big mistake in organization: managers will go into risk when there will be a strong system after-risk-education. When risk occurs the best way for all the top managers to do - to calculate losses, to analyse mistakes and factors led to losses, to work out steps for next risk deals instead of well-known and well-using "beating" managers for losses.

By defining and tracking risk, conducting regular reviews and audits, and implementing root cause analysis, businesses can not only assess the effectiveness of their risk management efforts but also learn from setbacks and continuously improve. This practice ensures that risk is viewed as an opportunity for growth and innovation rather than a hindrance, ultimately leading to more agile and successful organizations.

Deliberately taking risk is vital to be sustainable. Risks such as credit and market should be deliberately taken by financial services(banks) for profitability and liquidity. However this should be calculated. Encourage colleagues to conduct appropriate risk identification, analysis and responding to risks identified with reporting to appropriate governance forum allowing room for non recoverability/impairments, risk tolerance and appetite levels. Risk events and incident reporting culture should be encouraged without blame games. These will help to conduct root cause analysis, build lessons learnt for better informed decisions.

Keep the risk assessment report simple, easy to understand and in visually presentable form (e.g. Heat Maps or Accelerators). Many a time it happened that you have taken an intensive data driven approach with all the values, findings and details but for the leadership, those descriptions are too boring or meaningless to go through, understand the urgency and take a prioritise decision. So it's better to understand your audience where you are going to report your findings and customize the report accordingly. The second important factor for risk reporting is how to provide a broad overview of identified risk and what all systems will be affected. The risk assessor has to plan these aspects in advance for reporting.

Lead from the front. - Be a role model. Show everyone that it's safe to take risks. Be the first to try new things and share your mistakes. - Celebrate the successes of others, even if they failed. - Recognize and reward risk-taking. When someone takes a risk and succeeds, make sure to celebrate their achievement. - Reward failed attempts that were considered “worth the risk”. - Encourage data-informed risk-taking. Research and gather as much information as possible before taking a risk.

I would think about this differently. I do not believe it is about encouraging people or organizations to take a risk. That is like say jumping off a bridge, the water below will cushion your fall. It is going to hurt when you hit the water. It is about understanding the possible situations, trade-offs, and unintended consequences associated with the risk. Then, you can determine whether a particular course of action will bring the achievement of growth/revenue, cost containment, and/or brand/reputation. Business exists because there is a high inherent risk that can lead to the potential generation of profit. If you can put the actions in place to reduce inherent risk to a residual risk level, you could be rewarded with profit.

How often have you found that you have learned more from a failure than from a success? Encouraging staff to identify and reflect on failures allows them to become more resilient and to grow. If you always view mistakes negatively and make staff feel uncomfortable to come forward, then risk events may go unidentified or unreported and you will miss out on a valuable opportunity to make your organisation better.

Encouraging a culture of learning and risk-taking among colleagues and stakeholders is difficult but necessary for growth and innovation. To thrive, leaders must strike a delicate balance between reassurance and audacity 1. Promote the idea that calculated risks are possibilities for growth, emphasising that failure can lead to achievement. Deliver this message with confidence while remaining compassionate. 2. Use incentives to reward innovative thinking and risk-taking, but organise them properly to encourage responsible experimentation. 3. Maintain openness by establishing the organization's risk tolerance and learning vision for stakeholders, allowing them to confidently navigate uncertainty.

The promotion of positive risk management culture can be created in several ways. Risk awareness workshops, risk management training and mentoring, internal advertising, and risk reporting rewards are only a few of the methods that can be used. The encouragement of implementing a see something, say something methodology and the creation of anonymous reporting systems can be effective in encouraging risk identification. This may take a lot of upper and middle level managers out of their comfort zones, but the long-term benefits will be significant.