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“Some of our important choices have a timeline. If we delay a decision, the opportunity is gone forever. Sometimes our doubts keep us from making a choice that involves change. Thus, an opportunity may be missed.”– James E. Faust
As disruption—rapid change in current behavior with no time to oppose it—becomes the new normal in the world, risk champions may take a cue from design thinking to adapt their risk management process to the continuously evolving environment.
I recently attended a communication and technology conference where one of the sessions took attendees through the experience of design thinking. Design thinking is a visual, iterative approach to ascertaining human needs (or risks) and creatively discovering potential solutions. It is a quick-fire numbers game, which is exactly what happened in the one-hour session.
Attendees were asked to find a partner and uncover solutions to the gift-giving process. We interviewed our partner to tap into the emotional driver behind gift giving. Keep in mind that design thinking, like risk management, should not be overly engineered or complicated, or too simple (such as a clever checklist that is filed away and never used). In World-Class Risk Management for Nonprofits, Melanie Lockwood Herman reminds risk leaders to keep the purpose of risk management top of mind. “Risk management activities should inform and improve decision-making.”
In the beginning of the design-thinking session, we all struggled to get beyond the surface issues. As risk advisors, our team often encounters teams who hesitate or stumble after identifying a long list of worrying risks! As the participants in the workshop continued to plug away, additional insights were revealed. Many nonprofits begin with a narrow thought process around risks inspired by the question: what could go wrong? Or with an overly narrow goal such as reducing risk. Truly successful nonprofits look beyond these starting points for risk discussion and dream big about the risks necessary to change the world. Where would we be if organizations like the March of Dimes—originally focused on polio—had simply stopped after the Salk vaccine was licensed for use on April 12, 1955?
During the hour-long design-thinking session I learned that design thinking can be achieved in short increments. Designers also know that criticism—often overlooked in design thinking—is an integral and essential part of the creative process.
Also, ask open-ended questions. Your goal is to hear stories about the experience. Follow up after hearing some of the stories and ask why. Why is this risk being handled this way?
Try design thinking in small increments. Try an hour-long session, digest the human needs that were discovered, reflect on the ideas for potential solutions or opportunities that surfaced, and set a goal to repeat the process. Design thinking is a great tool for moving outside the familiar and comforting boundaries of a dry risk management process. It’s also a way to inject much-needed creativity into problem solving focused on the troubling risks facing your mission.
Katharine Nesslage is a project manager at the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. She welcomes your questions and feedback about design thinking and any NRMC resources at Katharine@nonprofitrisk.org or 703.777.3504.
Additional Resources
“First let me congratulate you on a conference well done. I had a great time at the Nonprofit Employee Benefits Conference and walked away with some valuable tools and questions that we’ll need to be addressing in both the short and long term. Thanks to you and your staff for all you do to provide us with quality resources in support of our missions.”
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“The board and staff of the Prince George’s Child Resource Center are extremely pleased with the results of the risk assessment conducted by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. A thorough scan revealed that while we are a well run organization, we had risks that we never imagined. We are grateful to know that we have now minimized our organizational risks and we recommend the Center to other nonprofits.”
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