Risk without Danger
Risk without danger does not exist. Whoever decides, always risks that the discarded (or unknown) alternative would have been more favourable (“If we had not …!”). The more decision-making possibilities there are, the more risks created. At the same time, the risks also increase, because, with greater complexity, maintaining an overview of the consequences, which might be caused by one’s own decisions, is no longer possible, either. Particularly in large organisations, when one area (e.g. IT) makes changes (e.g. conversion of software), they frequently cannot truly judge the consequences for another area. Often, it is only after the introduction that they realise, themselves, what dangers they must now deal with!
This everyday knowledge, though, is often ignored. Instead, unrealistic expectations are made of others or themselves about how far ahead the consequences of the decisions made can be predicted. A similar thing occurs, if, as a result of negative consequences, the decision-maker is accused that he should have been able to predict and avoid these. From this emerges the entitlement to operate with accusations and blame. In this way the safeguarding strategies for the decision-maker are raised up and particularly risky decisions are avoided.
An organisation that normalises (expects) the undesired consequences of decisions, because it knows that all risk-taking creates danger, is better suited to dealing with complexity and relieves the decision-maker in a beneficial manner.