Everything is shared and recorded, and here’s how the discussion goes, one “risk” at a time, shared by one participant at a time.
Why did you think this was a risk?
It’s important that each participant shares why they think their contributed risk (or risks) is important. By sharing their rationale, other team members get visibility to aspects of the business outside of their own.
What type of risk is this?
Each risk is given a type. Why? By forcing a type onto whatever is suggested, it helps clarify the concern for others in the meeting who may need more color than the previous explanation could offer. The types include:
- Financial
- Personnel
- Technological
- Resource
- Time
- Brand Integrity
What’s the likelihood that we’ll experience this situation?
Assigning a rating from 1 to 5 to each risk, with 1 meaning “remote chance it’ll happen,” to 5, “certain or expected to occur,” the team is forced to deal with the most probable real risks. It’s also encouraging to hear a group of your peers say, “No, I don’t think that one is very likely.”
If it does occur, how severe would its effects be?
Regardless of how likely a risk is determined to be, the group rates how much damage its occurrence would wreak. The scale ranges from 1, “mild damage to the project or company,” to 3, “severe damage.”
Now that we’ve shared this possibility, what will we do about it?
Every submitted risk gets ranged for severity and likelihood, and every risk gets a response. A 1–1 (remote / mild) may have very little in terms of a contingency plan, whereas a 5–3 will require some clear action steps.
This exercise can profoundly affect a project, ranging from team unification to project modification — or even cancellation. Getting together to talk about everything that could go wrong about a project can help you and your team make sure that most things go right.
