PROJECT IN THE SPOTLIGHT
THE EMPLOYMENT OF RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE WING COMMANDER ROB SEABROOK LOOKS AT THE EMPLOYMENT OF RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF RISK MANAGEMENT IN BOTH MILITARY AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTS.
I don’t profess to be an expert or an academic specialising in risk management (let’s call it RM to save some time), but I am a practitioner – having in ADF service regularly employed RM techniques both formally in a governance sense and informally as a method of day-to-day management. Assuming a knowledgeable audience I do not propose to explain the “how” of RM, but rather I will present a discussion of the why (and even the why not) particularly in military service, and in providing an overview of how the ADF utilises RM I hope to demonstrate why sensible and adaptive methods are necessary rather than just slavish adherence to a policy.
THE PURPOSE OF RISK MANAGEMENT Succinctly clarifying the purpose of RM is useful for context. In short, it is a management tool to prevent impact from unforeseen circumstances. This immediately makes it indispensable in a range of enterprise activities regardless of whether they are military, public or private. The methods can of course also apply to seeking more impact from desirable circumstances (called opportunity) but that is largely semantics in the context of this short article. Most importantly, RM enables one to make informed decisions by making the available information as useful as possible. Essentially it does this through reducing the unforeseen aspect of the circumstances and putting structure around the measurement and comparison of cost to benefit. Standardised processes put in place a common language, ensuring team understanding and enabling wide team input. As with many management processes, often the value lays in simply having any sensible process rather than shooting for nirvana in the elusive perfect process. Often much time is wasted in changing processes, outsourcing, or adopting the latest proprietary methods, when improvement is sometimes impossibly difficult to measure. Sometimes new methods are just different, in reality no better or worse. Granted, there are complex situations where the investment to carry out quantitative analysis to increase accuracy and fidelity is warranted, however it is my view that the so-called law of diminishing returns often results in the investment not providing value for money, and the alleged benefits not being realised.
RISK MANAGEMENT IN THE ADF Regardless of whether conducted intuitively and quickly in a dangerous operational environment, or deliberately and mathematically in a project environment, RM is the basis for all decision-making in the ADF.
As with many management processes, often the value lays in simply having any sensible process rather than shooting for nirvana in the elusive perfect process. 18
In planning activities, it is an aid to considering options; balancing advantages and disadvantages and considering what is known as the what if? question. In reality the only practical variation in RM between types of work area or operational environment is the speed and accuracy of analysis required in different circumstances. To expand upon this with examples, an infantry officer in the field or a fighter pilot in flight is often making rapid
