I did a workshop last week on risk. Risk and personal growth was the actual focus of the engagement. As always, I made some of the participants uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is a good thing.
We focused primarily on leadership in the workplace. Interestingly, the conversation around risk is usually confined to the P & L or some other business metric. We, however, were focusing on decision making and how risk affects our growth. What the participants discovered was the truth of how risk and growth are partners. In other words, if you want to grow, then you must be willing to risk. As you seek more growth, more risk will be your travel companion. These realities made me realize why so many people don’t grow, and why they think it’s smart to play it safe. Which is really the most dangerous decision you could make.
Let me give you a few insights from the workshop:
1. Risk is not designed to destroy you…stupidity is.
2. Those that have mentors are better able to manage risk.
3. See risk as it really is (like Neo and the bullets).