The umwelt trap: Managing risk like Truman Burbank

As risk management professionals, our days are filled with consultation, information gathering, data analysis, communication, decision making and programme execution. For many, this focus on activities leaves little time for much else. So, are we seeing the big picture? Do we focus on the right priorities? And are we engaging with all relevant stakeholders?

If not, then how can we be sure risk is being managed in the best interest of the business?

Meet Truman Burbank, resident of Seahaven Island – a picturesque, all-American coastal town. Great weather, friendly neighbours and zero crime. Sounds perfect. Of course, we know soon after the start of the Truman Show that the town is a television set with Truman unaware he is the subject of a social experiment.

As viewers, we gain up-close and personal insight into Truman’s world. But our view also extends behind the camera to the production control room. It’s here where we learn just what Truman is up against, as the show’s producers apply physical and psychological methods to prevent him from discovering the truth. Soon, we cannot resist the obvious question of Truman.

In the movie, an interviewer asks the producer and show architect "Why do you think Truman has never come close to discovering the true nature of his world?" The reply is revealing and a lesson for all of us. "We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented."

What is your risk management reality?

In the early 20th century, biologist Jakob von Uexküll introduced the concept of the umwelt to highlight how animals in the same ecosystem use different environmental signals. As an example, three animals without sight and hearing – the tick, the black ghost knifefish and the echolocating bat – utilise temperature and odour, electrical fields and air-compression waves, respectively, to detect and navigate their surroundings.

This small subset of the world that each animal can detect is its umwelt. Von Uexküll presumed each animal’s umwelt represented its entire objective reality, despite a broader world existing beyond the animal’s surroundings (which he described as the umgebung).

Has your role evolved to accept the environment in which you manage risk? What’s your risk management umwelt?

Back in Seahaven, Truman begins to challenge what he sees, hears and feels. As the show’s producers make mistakes and risk exposing the real world, Truman embarks on a search for the truth. His attempts to visit Fiji are thwarted by fear tactics and distraction but he persists. He no longer accepts his umwelt.

What unseen forces prevent you from seeing the reality of business risk? Is it the media, product vendors or other professionals in the industry? Could it be other external forces, such as regulators and standards bodies? Or maybe it’s your organisation’s industry sector, culture and political landscape?

It’s natural to be curious, to examine and challenge the boundaries of our umwelt. It’s also essential to keep an open mind and avoid assumptions. Consider the popular parable The blind men and the elephant, which highlights the both the dangers and consequences of the umwelt.

In one variation of the story, six blind men encounter an elephant and, after examining the animal, draw contrasting conclusions as to what it is. The first man, touching the elephant’s side, interprets the animal as a wall, while the second mistakes a leg for a tree. You see where this is going.

The third man claims a spear (tusk), the fourth a fan (ear) and the fifth declares a rope (tail). Finally, the sixth man fares no better and confirms a snake instead of trunk.

Only when the six men consult each other do the real problems begin. Confident of their own findings, each man’s failure to consider an alternative view leads to confusion and a very distorted picture of reality. Stubbornness, bias and heuristics conspire to restrict each man’s ability to see the whole elephant – the real asset.

Under these circumstances, how do you identify the opportunities associated with the elephant? What are the greatest threats to the elephant? How should you protect it?

In the real world, effective management of business risk requires a comprehensive risk management framework that is driven by business goals and operations, makes use of sound risk management practices and promotes ongoing assurance to demonstrate that the approach benefits, not harms, the business.

The success of this approach requires strong security governance and related management activities, covering many disciplines including business resilience, supply chain management, compliance and asset protection.

So, if you have a responsibility for any part in protecting your organisation’s assets and want to ensure it contributes to both business objectives and broader risk management, here are four suggestions to help avoid the umwelt trap.

1. Acknowledge your umwelt

In response to the 2011 Edge.org annual question What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit? David Eagleman (author of The Brain) proposed Jakob von Uexküll’s concept of the umwelt.

He supported his suggestion by explaining that “our brains are tuned to detect a shockingly small fraction of the surrounding reality. Our sensorium is enough to get by in our ecosystem, but is does not approximate the larger picture.”

As security professionals, accepting the limits of our own umwelt is the first step to seeing the bigger picture. We might not yet fully understand the greater reality but knowing it’s there represents the beginning of the journey.

2. Identify indicators of the umwelt

Just as Truman begins to question his family and friends and challenge the status quo, make sure you look for signs that could be influencing or limiting your umwelt. Challenge decisions and rationale relating to asset prioritisation, focus on threats, control selection and protective methods used. Determine the extent to which the whole business is considered when undertaking risk management activities.

Examine factors that might prevent you seeing the bigger picture, such as media sources, product marketing, compliance obligations and organisational pressures. Evaluate your discussions about risk.

Are any asset owners and other stakeholders missing from the conversation? Are you overlooked during critical risk decisions?

Confront your own comfort zone.

3. Explore beyond the umwelt

Choose your Fiji and leave your comfort zone. Extend your engagement with people and groups throughout the organisation who can influence and advance the management of business risk. This can include business operations, technology, assurance, supply chain, resilience, legal and procurement.

Examine the extent to which communication channels exist with and between all functions that support, or contribute to, risk management. Identify how information is shared in both directions (e.g. to support decision making and inform stakeholders of progress).

Embrace innovation and creativity. Find risk management techniques that have been proven elsewhere in the organisation and try them. If successful, adopt them and tailor accordingly.

4. Combine umwelts to create a more accurate reality

Embrace curiosity and immerse yourself in business practices and operations, learning about the products and services delivered to your customers. Risk management is as much about pursuing business opportunities as it is about protecting business assets.

Challenge your own boundaries and those of others. Establish a risk management framework that promotes a meaningful and ongoing engagement with business leaders and asset owners across the organisation. Promote security governance as a core element of the risk management framework and ensure all security management activities receive equal attention.

If Truman can escape his umwelt, you can too.

Sources used for this article included:

The Truman Show (details on IMDb)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/

Eagleman’s Edge.org article about the umwelt

https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11498

Jakob von Uexküll - The Discovery of the Umwelt between Biosemiotics and Theoretical Biology by Carlo Brentari

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789401796873

Jakob von Uexküll

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jakob_von_Uexk%C3%BCll

How to Apply the Concept of Umwelt in the Evolutionary Study of Cognition

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02001/full

Blind Men and the Elephant

https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/blind-men-and-the-elephant.htm

Source of images were IMDb.com and Medium.com