Fundamentals of Risk Management

Risk culture
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TAbLE 
27.2
People skills for risk management practitioners
Key skill
Skill requirements
Communication
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Excellent written and oral skills
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Presentation and public-speaking skills
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Committee and meeting participation skills
Relationship
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Influencing skills to work with ‘challenging’ behaviour
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Negotiating skills to defuse conflict and identify solutions
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Networking skills across organizational silos
Analytical
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Strategic thinking skills and creativity skills
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Data-handling skills to get to the heart of a problem
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Research skills to present arguments based on facts
Management
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Time-management skills to manage teams and projects
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Leadership skills to motivate and develop staff
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Facilitation skills to assist with setting priorities
Communication skills
Accurate communication on risk issues is vitally important. Internal communication 
within the organization will be undertaken through the risk architecture. This is the 
formal risk communication structure related to risk control activities and the collect-
ing of information for external risk reporting purposes. For example, a road haulage 
company may wish to bring focus to the efficient operation of the organization and 
ensure that risk management receives appropriate attention.
In these circumstances, the company might decide to introduce a number of meas-
urable loss-control programmes. The board of the company has requested a report 
at every board meeting on the number of road accidents, frequency of vehicle break-
downs, level of fuel consumption and reported incidents during deliveries. These 
reports will enable the board to benchmark the performance of the company, in 
comparison both with competitors and with historical data for the company itself. 
In this case, the board is monitoring performance, whereas the management of the 
improved risk performance remains an executive responsibility to be delivered by 
line management.
Within some organizations, risk communication may also be more informal. 
Communication will take place during risk assessment workshops and at risk train-
ing courses. Communication arrangements are part of the risk culture. External risk 
communications will need to take place with external stakeholders, including the 
media, the general public and pressure groups.

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