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6. The Human Element
Considerations of and concerns for the human element are at the core of management
of any endeavor, but risk management is not human-centered. It focuses on such
things as the policies, procedures, planning and results of a program without
any real regard for who does what.
However, from a risk management perspective it is common to ponder how we ever
get anything done considering our frailties and often less-than-grand motives,
and we do get things done. Therefore, the following is offered as a statement
of the positive as much as it is a condemnation of the negative aspects of human
nature on the failure of programs.
All programs experience some degree of risk and associated failure simply because
of clumsy, dumb, indifferent, misdirected, naive, gutless, intellectually lazy
and intellectually dishonest behaviors on the part of its principals. And, this
is the short list for this type of behavior. There is not too much that can
be done about the majority of such factors from the perspective of risk management
except marvel at our ability to be our own worst enemy.
Some generalized examples from experience include:
Clumsy: Shoddy equipment calibration for quality control with the Hubble optics,
in a situation screaming for caution.
Dumb: Designing a WBS in the development phase of a program to preclude competition
in later manufacture-to-print phases of the program.
Indifferent: Providing shoddy or incomplete work simply because there is little
visibility to the effort and the user has little clout.
Naive: The belief that because something sounds logical it will "play
out" as envisioned.
Misdirected: Product development teams for the sake of having such teams, i.e.,
fashion for fashion's sake. (See virtually any recent RFP from the U.S. military.)
Gutless: Management's acceptance of a customer's meaningless, but disruptive
inputs...simply to avoid conflict.
Intellectually Lazy: Management by buzz words rather than by sweat equity.
Intellectually Dishonest: Any or all of the rationalizations to defend a failing
program from funding cuts, i.e., the program manager's syndrome.
Note that criminal behaviors are not discussed, but are a factor to consider
in some environments and organizations.
All of these are behavioral problems on the part of individuals or groups of
individuals. While we are all subject to such behavior, we should make an effort
to be professional in our approach and also to avoid situations and organizations
in which such behavior by others is tolerated. When you find that the inmates
have taken over the asylum...check out!
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