Enemies – Poor Leadership and Strategy and an unreasonable Culture of Fear to risk! 

Somewhere along the corporate road - around the time legal and financial departments began writing handbooks and producing an amount of Financial Charts and Tables thicker than engineering specs - risk lost its dignity. It became synonymous with liability, danger, or negligence, or assigning blame. Risk becomes a word to be avoided, not engaged. But any seasoned sailor or systems engineer knows this: the absence of risk is not safety - it’s stagnation. 

Risk, if rightly understood, is not the enemy of leadership. It is its companion.  However, remember the really serious “Risk lies in the Ocean, not in the Shark”.

In a sense we are all sailors, navigating a volatile, shifting expanse. The ocean doesn’t apologise for its unpredictability. But neither does it ambush us. It simply is. And that’s how risk works in the real world. It’s what you move through, not what you run from.

In systems terms, risk is not an isolated hazard - it’s a signal. It emerges from the tension between competing forces: cost vs. quality, speed vs. safety, control vs. creativity. Every risk tells you something about the balance - or imbalance - within your system. Excessive risk aversion doesn’t remove danger. It merely shifts it elsewhere - often out of view. Which inadvertantly often makes the situation even more dangerous.

In all my years, I’ve found the best leaders are not reckless - but neither are they paralysed by the pursuit of certainty. They read the weather, they calculate, and then they sail. They understand that no innovation, no transformation, and no enduring legacy was built without facing headwinds.

Recognize that risk isn’t about recklessness. It’s about courage with context. Knowing when to take the leap, and when to batten down. The key lies in cultivating organisational seamanship:

•  Mental readiness – Training leaders to make calm decisions under pressure.
•  Strategic readiness – Building contingency plans before storms hit.
•  Operational readiness – Designing systems that flex under strain.
•  Emotional readiness – Normalising failure as a learning loop, not a career-ending event.

These principles form the backbone of any resilient culture. Without them, risk either crushes or corrupts. With them, risk builds capability. Because flat seas never made a skilled captain.

Prompt 1: Discuss - Leaders don’t need to eliminate risk. But they should redefine it as the cost of significance.

Prompt 2: How would you design risk to become a developmental force rather than a compliance issue?