My daughter, Emma is 15 years old, she’s really good in her studies, very curious to learn new things, always asks questions from me about various topics such as science, politics, sports, history, etc. but as she grows older my capacity to answering them has reduced and also, she’s a super fan of ‘Harry Potter’.

She had a very good year in school last year and she will now be moving into a very important milestone of her life – GCSE exam year. I promised her that I would take her to Warner Bros. Harry Potter World Studio Tour in London during summer holidays. That exciting day finally arrived and the two of us got into a train from York to London. It’s about a two-hour journey – I thought she would be looking at her phone and start chatting with her friends, so I put my headphones to listen to a podcast, but my plan was short lived when Emma asked me:

“Dad, can I ask you something about your job?” Emma is passionate about science subjects, and she thinks my desk job is boring, this was an unusual topic and now I’m curious to know what she’s interested in my work, and I said,

“Sure, ask me what you want to know”

She started to explain, “I have friends whose parents work in education, in health care, have trained to work in human resources and finance. Even though I don’t exactly know what they do, I can imagine what their work. But I don’t understand what you do as a ‘Risk Officer’, I don’t have any other friends whose parents do your job, and I don’t know how to explain what you do to my friends. It’s a bit of a funny job and I am not sure if it’s a real one – can I ask what exactly you do as a ‘Risk officer?’.”

Well, that was a tough question to explain to a 15-year-old. Sometimes when I introduce myself as a ‘Risk Officer’ to my colleagues, I get responses like “Wow! You’re the one who knows about everything that’s going on and does all mathematical and complex work in office”. Even though, it’s not what I do, I nod as it’s easier than trying to explain what I do as a risk officer. But I can’t escape my daughter – we’re on the train together for the next two hours. I have to give a sensible response to my her that she can then relay to her friends. So I said …..

“First of all it’s not magic and it’s not a made-up job!  Why don’t we enjoy the train journey and just tell your friends I work in the office on all sorts of things.

Emma was not in the mood to be fobbed off. She said “Come on dad, haven’t you heard the famous quote by Albert Einstein “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” – so, can I assume that you don’t understand what you do in office! I’m sure you’re very smart and you know what you do, give it a try, I might understand – you do know that I am 15!”

That was a tough argument to beat, and this was a real test of my understanding of the ‘risk management’ profession and I thought I would give it a go and I said,     

Alright, I said – here goes. “All organizations despite their size, nature of operations, their complexities, work towards achieving some objectives. Most companies have profit motives, like banks, manufacturing companies, supermarkets, but not all organizations. I work for a charity and its objectives are very different to organizations that want to maximize their profits-”

“Like our school! – it’s not a private school and you don’t pay any fees?” – Emma asked.

“Yes, exactly and there are many other examples such as hospitals, housing associations in the UK which operate without out a profit motive but to support providing houses for people. There are charities who do research and various other work for the benefit of the public and also you could take the government, they don’t have a profit motive – But all these organisations have a common feature i.e. they have objectives / goals and they’re working towards achieving those objectives”.

Emma nodded her head and said “Yes, I get that, not only organisations; we as individuals also have goals – and my goal is to be a scientist one day but what is that to do with what you do as a ‘Risk Officer’”

Like most 15-year-olds, she’s a bit impatient so I had to slow down her, “I just started explaining this to you and I’m sure you will be a great scientist one day, but let me ask you a question – What will stop you from achieving your goal?”

She replied, “if I don’t have a proper plan, I will fail; if I don’t study and do my exams well, I won’t achieve my goals and then…..” she started thinking.

I stopped her and said “Good! as you said having a proper plan is one of the most important things, then executing the plan is crucial and what about let’s say you don’t take care of yourself, get sick and will not be able to do your exams properly, or one of your best teachers leaves the school and you don’t like the teaching style of the new teacher, something like COVID 19 happens and there’s a lockdown again in the country and you’re back to online studies –  which I know you don’t like?”

Emma stopped me and said “Yes, those things can also affect me achieving my goals. But there are many such things that could have an effect; I might miss important exam and syllabus updates; I might miss my assignment deadlines and there are many more. And I’m not certain that all things will go my way. You’re not suggesting I need my own personal risk officer, are you?”

I said, “You are your own personal risk officer” I responded with a smile and continued. “To achieve our goals, we need to acknowledge that there are a lot of things beyond our control like your teachers, parents, friends, exam boards, nature, our body, etc. and, since we don’t fully understand how they think or work, there are uncertainties. Do you agree with me that those uncertainties need to be properly managed?”

Emma agreed with me and said “Hundred percent, I understand there are some uncertainties like whether I will be sick during exams or whether my lesson notes are safe for future reference. I’m sure that I’ll be taking care of those uncertainties, and I don’t think I need anyone else to remind them because I know how important they’re to achieve my goals.”

And then she started to challenge my point “But who has time to think of all uncertainties or things that could go wrong and plan for everything! Most of those uncertainties might not happen and it will be time wasting to think and plan for all those things. If something goes wrong, I will deal with it then. I can use my time more productively for studying rather than worrying of things that might or might not happen.”

Emma is not only curious but now she has started to challenge almost everything. It wasn’t easy to explain things to her like when she was small, and now she doesn’t buy anything I say! But this was not an easy argument and she’s challenging whether risk management is a bit over the top. But to be fair, I have been challenged with this argument many times before – I’ve even asked myself the same question a few times, so I responded with:

“Yes, I agree with you; we don’t need to worry about all the uncertainties and I’m sure you could take care of most of the uncertainties that would have a significant impact to your goals. But would you agree that your mom and I have advised you to take breaks and walk outside for few minutes when you have been studying for a long period of time inside your room? I remember telling you to go to sleep when I saw you awake very late at night because you would not be able to concentrate on your lessons next day. I also have heard your mother advising you not to eat too many sweets.”

 She agreed with that and said “Yes, I agree, and I had to change what I was doing when you said those things to me. But to be honest, I didn’t it like when you said those things to me, and I just did because I didn’t want to say ‘no’ to you.”

Then a point I wasn’t expecting “But dad I’ve seen you also work without taking breaks – if it’s it important for my studies what about your productivity” she argued.

She was right and I shared her habit of not taking breaks when working but I’m starting to improve.

I went on explaining my point and said “That’s important to me too and I’m not perfect. In summary, we all have blind spots when we do our day-to-day jobs of things we think we don’t have time to worry about. Mainly because we are focussed on what we are good at. Sometimes we need to take a step back or, even better, get another perspective or fresh pair of eyes on things”

“So is your job to look for blind spots in office?” Emma asked.

“Well not only that, but it’s a part of it. It’s not that I know where the blind spots are, but I facilitate discussions to help everyone understand what they are, what problems they might bring and how we should deal with them. Importantly, these discussions also throw up how things might be done differently. For example, if you discuss your study plans with teachers, they might ask questions like – is there a different and more efficient way to schedule revision time, what if you worked with a school mate on your revision. Could these things offer new opportunities we hadn’t thought of?”  

Oh, we’re in London, Emma said – let’s just go and have our picture taken at Platform 9^3/4 before we do anything else.