Risk conversations can feel uncomfortable, especially if you’re new to project management or to dealing with senior people. But handled well, they show leadership, build trust and prevent surprises.
Identifying risks and what you are going to do about them is a good first step, but active management includes sharing the high-level risks with senior management so they are aware of what could happen – and that might help you later on if they do materialize.
This article gives you the tools and language to hold risk conversations in a way that’s clear, calm and constructive, even if it’s your first-time presenting risks to your sponsor or steering group. Here are our tips for making those risk conversations or presentations go well.
1. Understand your audience
Before you open your mouth (or PowerPoint presentation), it’s really important to understand your audience. Not all stakeholders think about risk the same way.
You’ve probably already had conversations with operational teams. Users tend to care about operational disruptions and on-the-ground challenges. Execs may prioritize their energy into risks that have a financial or reputational impact.
If you’re putting a presentation together, for example a steering group or project board report, or a report to a client, you’ll want to pick out the risks that mean the most to the people reading (or hearing) it.
Once you’ve identified the key risks to include, tailor how you present the information to be meaningful to them. For example, if you’re facing into a delay with training materials being ready, you could explain it in two ways:
- “This could delay our launch by three weeks,” is the message for execs
- “This may affect the training timeline,” is what front-line staff might be most interested in.
Before the meeting, think — what would worry this person most? Focus on answering those questions.
2. Be clear on the difference between uncertainty and drama
Don’t bring the drama where it’s not needed. Stick to the facts. Especially as risks are all about things that haven’t happened yet – there’s no guarantee any of your scenarios will happen at all.
Where you’ve got statistics or data, include them in your explanations to help quantify the impact. The more data you can provide, the easier it is for other people to understand whether this risk could have a big impact or whether it’s something the organization could manage. Get the data from your colleagues, and when you present it, explain any assumptions or context that will help people understand what it means.
3. Explain how the risk was identified and assessed
We recommend explaining how the risk was identified and assessed – but also be aware that in senior leadership meetings your presentation time is likely to be very short. This is one aspect of the discussion you could cut, but if anyone asks, you’ll want to have the information to hand.
If your leadership team doesn’t have much experience with risk management, you can explain about the planning workshop where this risk was flagged, for example. Save time in conversations by including visuals in your presentation material that show how risks were rated on a probability x impact scale or a ranked list.
Don’t worry if you haven’t done this before or haven’t got a lot of risk management experience. No one is expecting you to be an expert. You just need to sound as if you’ve thought it through!
4. Always pair risks with responses
Risks are potential problems (for the most part – in our experience, execs tend not to worry so much about the positive risks that represent opportunities). People like to know what’s being done about problems.
When you talk about a risk, share what is being done, or what could be done to deal with it. How are you reducing the impact or probability. How could you transfer the risk to be someone else’s problem? If there’s nothing you can do, is active monitoring planned so you can at least be sure the impact isn’t getting worse?
5. Focus on impact, not just technical detail
Many risks end up having technical, detailed, mitigation or management plans. And the more senior the audience, the less likely it is that they will care about what widget is being worked on or the extra testing you’re doing about a particular piece of the functionality. Some of them might, but generally, they take a more ‘helicopter’ view of the organization so they’re interested in the impact.
Talk about the business impact of the risk: “If this happens, there will be a two-week delay which could push the construction to starting in the next financial quarter.” Think budget, customer impact, compliance and big picture schedules. You can always include the detail in an appendix or share it if anyone asks.
6. Invite dialogue, don’t just report
Make the most of your time with the senior team by asking for their thoughts. Do they see any additional risks? How will their areas be impacted by the risks you’ve highlighted? What steps would they take to add to your management plans?
Your stakeholders – whatever level they are throughout the organization – see the project through a different lens to you and that can be useful. When they share their opinions, you’ll hear about other risks, new perspectives and gain their support for your actions.
Risk conversations don’t have to be stressful. It’s about being clear, honest and focused on solutions. Share what you know and explain how you’ll find out more about what you don’t yet know. Prepare for risk conversations and use clear, plain language to get your message across, and be ready for the questions! You’ve got this!