Fundamentals of Risk Management

Risk practitioner competencies
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For example, if a road haulage company wishes to extend its vehicle storage depot, 
there will be a need to communicate with stakeholders, as well as local authority 
planning departments. The company will need to prepare arguments that provide 
an evaluation of any risks to the community that may increase when the depot is 
extended. The public perception of what is proposed and the impact on the vicinity 
may not be fully accurate. Accordingly, the company will need to prepare honest, 
open and detailed arguments that assure all interested parties that adequate risk 
control arrangements are in place.
The box below provides an example of risk communication in relation to nuclear 
and chemical industries in the United States. The lesson here is that the public percep-
tion of risk may not be aligned with the scientific evidence. The information presented 
by an organization needs to do more than present intellectual information. The
communication should also address emotional concerns.
The formal development of risk communication as a subject began in the late 1970s with 
efforts by the nuclear and chemical industries in the United States to counteract widespread 
public concern about those technologies. It was believed that clear, understandable 
information was all that was needed to make people see that the risks were lower than
many feared.
For decades this approach has failed, and most risk communication experts say it is 
inadequate. Perceptions of risk, and the behaviours that result, are a matter not only of the 
facts but also of our feelings, instincts and personal life circumstances. Communication that 
offers the facts but fails to account for the affective side of our risk perceptions is simply 
incomplete.
Risk communication is also commonly thought of as what to say under crisis circumstances, 
but this is inadequate. While it is certainly true that communication in times of crisis is 
important in managing the public response, countless examples have taught that a great
deal of the effectiveness of risk communication during a crisis is based on what was done 
beforehand.
Development of risk communication
An important consideration in relation to communication skills is the ability to run 
a training course. In particular, risk practitioners will need to facilitate risk assess-
ment workshops. There are a number of basic skills that are required in running a 
successful workshop, but the starting point is to establish its structure and format.
In general, the key will be to ensure that the discussion is well structured and that all 
attendees have an opportunity to contribute on an equal basis.
Techniques that are used during workshops include the use of sticky notes to 
capture ideas from delegates. These notes are then collated according to the way they 
relate to the specific questions that have been asked. Consolidation of the many ideas 
into a small number of agreed issues requires skill on the part of the facilitator, who 
will need to identify similarities in the ideas and consolidate compatible ideas into
a smaller number of issues or, more specifically, identified risks.

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