Institutional Risk Management
The advice given here for project managers applies equally to the management of risk at the institutional level. The same process of planning, identification, evaluation and control should take place in relation to the organisation's strategic plans. HEFCE has produced some useful good practice guidance for institutional risk management.
A particular topic of interest to senior managers at the moment is e-Learning and the risks associated with it. The JISC has funded a project at the University of Strathclyde and Kilmarnock College to look at this topic.
The project has produced:
- A senior management briefing paper
- A framework for managing the risks, and
- A series of workshops that look at particular aspects of e-Learning related risk.
The workshop material is available to download and use in your own institution and all the resources listed above may be found on the Project's home page.
Creating a Risk-Robust Culture
Changing our institutional cultures to be more risk-robust isn't going to happen overnight. However the more we talk about risk in relation to projects and try to give concrete examples of how risks will impact then the more likely it is that our stakeholders will begin to have more realistic expectations of real world projects.
Risk won't go away simply because we choose to ignore it or fail to plan for it. If we can start to create plans and budgets with risk factored into them then our organisations will develop a greater degree of confidence in their own abilities to manage projects and will be in a better position to evaluate their own risk tolerance.
We must not lose sight of the fact that risks can be turned into opportunities and a proactive approach to risk management is a first step in creating new opportunities as an organisation.
