Marionettes, or The Human Factor

Understanding the drivers of human behavior will help us,manage risks better. People, after all, design the processes,,build and implement the systems, and put in place the,organizational structures that lead to risk taking. People engineer the products, establish networks of suppliers, and solicit the clients. Even when acts of God disrupt our affairs, people make the judgments and take the emergency actions that shape the outcome. Put very simply: We assume risk to make money and deliver value. Operational risk is our own creation. The implication is equally simple—when things go wrong, we have only ourselves to blame. Our misunderstanding, miscommunication, or, worse, our own misconduct cause failure. Understanding ourselves, both as individuals and as organizational people, is where we need to start