The Importance of Risk Training

The key to successful risk management in your business is your people. Their risk culture, perception, attitude, engagement, behaviour and actions, with respect to risk management, will make or break the success of your risk management framework. It is the number one ingredient for success.

Developing and maintaining the right culture requires knowledge, understanding and skills. This can be acquired in a number of ways including: life experience; work experience and informal learning; and structured training. Given the maturity of risk management in most organisations is at the early stages, structured risk training is the most critical. Why?

• There is a wide range of views and opinions over what risk and risk management is. Getting a consistent view through specific training gets everyone on the same page.
• Many staff have a limited view or awareness of risk management and perceive it as complex and vague. In order to practice good risk management, staff must be risk aware and risk must be well understood. The related risk processes must be simple, understood and embedded in day to day practices. Risk Management needs to be demystified.
• Many staff perceive risk and risk management in a negative light – more of a hindrance than an enabler. Good training helps change that perception by focussing on the value add of risk management and the “what’s in it for me?”
• The language and lingo that has developed around risk management can be a hindrance to understanding. Training gives the opportunity to promote a consistent language across the organisation.
• Every person within your organisation is responsible for risk management and must play a role in its operation. It is not the sole responsibility of a “risk manager”. Risk and risk knowledge must therefore be widely dispersed.
• Training provides a safe environment to ask the perceived “silly” questions which are invaluable in creating practical understanding.

Practical top quality risk management training provides all of the above. Risk management training can help your team to recognise and understand how managing their risk benefits them, their performance and the broader enterprise. Only then can they make precise and powerful decisions on behalf of your business, driving actions that work in the real world.