Communicating Decision Information to the Lay Risk Manager : A Consultant’s Perspective

This essay reports the personal reflections of an experienced consultant on how to communicate decision-related information to risk managers. The aim is to help them to make their minds up on an immediate or repetitive choice, to justify their actions to others, or to gather more information first. The information may include prescriptive decision analyses, factual risk assessments, value judgments, raw data or personal observations. The communication may use the information alone or combine it with other available information. Also addressed are: the role of decider judgment, layman language, macro-models, interactive communication and assessment firmness. Author's perspective is based on 50 years of consulting to a variety of deciders and on two research projects