In People Risk Management, Keith Blacker and Patrick McConnell provide insight and practical suggestions about how to manage people-related risks at large commercial firms. Due to their size and complexity, large companies are more prone to disastrous outcomes, such as those experienced by BP, Enron, and Lehman Brothers. The authors offer practical tools, real-world examples, and best-practice guidance about how to implement effective people risk management across an organization and thereby improve decision-making processes.
From bad business decisions to illegal activity, people risk — the risk that people will deviate from an organization’s rules and procedures in a way that damages profits and reputations — presents a growing threat to increasingly complex and global businesses. Leaders should be aware of the following aspects of people risk:
- Individuals and groups make bad decisions when they fail to consider all of the facts. A bad decision can benefit a firm, and a good decision can be morally dubious.
- Rather than using rational analyses to make decisions, people are subject to cognitive biases or blind spots, such as overconfidence or groupthink.
- A company’s culture has a significant effect on people risk management. The culture is influenced from the top down.
- A company can use a decision checklist as well as pre- and post-mortems to help improve decision-making throughout the organization.
- Organizations should create personalized codes of conduct to help individuals take personal responsibility and improve decision-making processes.
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The Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation title 20 Minute Manager: Leading Virtual Teams aims to help managers of remote groups succeed from afar. Virtual teams can present a unique set of challenges, including maintaining accountability from a distance and depending on technological means of communication, but these challenges can be overcome. Leaders of virtual teams can achieve success by ensuring that their teams have the right mix of skills and abilities for remote work, the right technological tools are in place, goals and processes are clearly defined and understood, and their employees remain engaged and accountable.
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