Project Risk Control vs Innovation

Winston Churchill once said, "The optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity."

As project managers, we are taught to focus on reducing or avoiding risk, but all too often we forget that a good risk management plan should include opportunities as well. Sometimes those opportunities will carry additional risks, but if the benefits are worth it, we need to exploit those opportunities. Certainly we can---and should---try to mitigate the risks, but the point is that in focusing on the dangers, let's not overlook the opportunities.

When framing a project, it's important to see for ourselves what the customer's situation is, and get engaged an an "opportunity assessment." As Tom Kelley of IDEO pointed out in The Ten Faces of Innovation, Henry Ford said that if he'd merely asked customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

Of course, not every opportunity will make it into the scope of the initial project, but at least there can be a plan to exploit it.

So, using Winston Churchill's axiom, should project managers be optimists or pessimists? I'd venture to say we need to be a little of both, and the right balance is the art of project management. For more on how innovation and project management can and should coexist, stay tuned for my upcoming post on the relevance of Tom Kelley's book to project managers.