Empower teams to raise risks.

Project teams are the backbone of projects. It’s important to ensure your team feels empowered to make decisions and identify risks as they arise. Including your project team in brainstorming and encouraging them to speak up can go a long way. Ashley Butao, a project manager at Capital One, Toronto, Canada, says it’s about creating a safe space.

“I think it all starts with creating a psychologically safe space for team members and empowering your team members to raise risks and issues without feeling like they’re going to have a reprisal from other team members. Or they need to worry about managers or bosses who are going to say, ‘No, we [have] got to deliver it now,’” Butao says. “It’s also planning for change. While you can have a goal that’s 18 or 12 months in advance, when it comes to planning out work tasks, embrace planning it out in small chunks. That way if something goes wrong, you can adapt faster and you can learn quicker.”

Risk management understands that certain events or conditions — whether expected or unforeseeable — may occur during the project life cycle. Ensuring risk is integrated into projects and developing a risk management framework can help teams face the unknown head-on.?

Integrating risk management is critical for project success. Here’s how professionals are making risk a priority.

Projects are most successful when you plan them effectively — and that includes risk management. Risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project's objectives. Being proactive and planning for project risks will help steer your project towards success. Here are tips from professionals on how to integrate risk management into your project plan.