Some of you might know, I am a co-owner of a company that brings modern boardgames to different places of Rio de Janeiro. Recently I had the pleasure of playing Colt Express with my business partner and couldn´t stop thinking on the importance of “Risk Management”.
Colt express is a boardgame launched in 2014 which received several prizes. The game environment happens inside a train, where you play heavily armed bandits that wants to steal a suitcase with a lot of cash, diamonds and small buckets of money. Each participant plays against each other to see who gets more money at the end of the game.
The game has 5 rounds and each has 2 phases. You own 6 action cards in your hand. These action cards will be used to execute certain actions – you can punch, shoot, move the sheriff around, pickup valuable items, move vertically and move horizontally.
But where is “Risk Management”?
For each of the 5 rounds, you will Plan 4, 5 actions in sequence. But it´s not a plain sequence. Each participant will do the same. Let´s imagine this scenario with 4 actions: Player 1 will choose an action card, then player 2 then player 3 then player 4.
So you have identified what YOU wanted to do. After all cards are on the pile, then we will see what will happen! You might have chosen to shoot someone, but that person is no longer where you wanted him/her to be. Or someone moved the sheriff to the vagon you were and you get a shot.
But where is “Risk Management”?!?!?
As mentioned in the paragraph above, you have identified what you wanted to do but have no control on what others will be doing. Even if all goes well, hardly you will get exactly what you originally intended to have done.
Maybe for some people, Risk Management is something odd... why to worry about things that can go wrong? Why can´t we hope for the best and stick to it? What could possibly go wrong?
PMBOK defines risks as “an uncertain event that if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives, such as scope, schedule, cost and quality”. PMBOK also identifies the “Enterprise Environmental Factors” as an input for risk identification, planning and analisys. Related to this, I consider that we have limited control/certainty on some variables like how the market will react, the economy conditions, other players coming to market, receptiveness of your product. You surely have tools to try to validate assumptions before the project starts, but they will be assumptions, not certainties.
In my opinion, it is important to identify what can happen to be better prepared in the event a negative risk happens, or an opportunity develops, and not rush into making immediate decision that may end up harming the business/project. What can we proactively do to reduce negative risks, or, enhance opportunities should be a constant thought on our projects.
If we prepare ourselves when the pressure of a decision is not imminent, I think we may come up with better and more intelligent approaches. If we leave the decision to when the event happened, we will be simply reacting. In any case, not all risks will be identified upfront and you will have to deal with some of them when they materialize. It is a balance and risks must not get you paralysed.
So what we learn from the game is that: You can plan as much as you think appropriate. But at the end, the outcome will be somehow different from what you originally envisioned! Be ready for changes and adapt to the situation!
If you don´t have a Risk Management plan, you will be following the “currents” instead of being the leader of your ship. Citing a famous Bruce Lee quote “Be the Water”, in this project environment don´t be the water. Be the captain (but a flexible and adaptible one)!
Play modern boardgames to train your strategy! Visit us and learn more about our work at http://draykescavepub.wixsite.com/home (website in portuguese).
References: Colt express game explanation: https://www.boardgamequest.com/colt-express-review/ PMBOK: https://www.pmi.org
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