Yesterday I wrote about control and service.  Increased control can reduce risk.  However to really move forward and provide better service we need to embrace risk: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”

All ventures are risky.  An organization has to embrace the taking of risks by its employees and reward them for taking “reasonable” risks.  Few organization encourage risk takers because they are afraid that risk takers will eventually commit blunders. The definition of what a “reasonable” risk is will vary widely.

Most organizations are risk averse.  Universities are especially risk averse as most of their value is in their reputation. A reputation built over centuries by a University can be destroyed by one stupid mistake.  Tenure and permanent appointments at Universities are a small way to overcome this attitude at a University but the time involved and the process of earning that status makes most employees sclerotic and very risk averse.   A probationary employee is too scared to take risks to begin with and seven years of training in not taking risks embeds that attitude “permanently”..

This loss of enterprise  is specially significant as organizations and people get older (you can call me ageist) because they have more invested and have more to loose. This tendency has to be countered by a risk embracing organizational culture or it invites stagnation and decay.