Risk Management and Normalization of Risk

Once in a while we come across a failed project, poor decision or worse a catastrophe. The individual or team behind the decision might be very well experienced. When teams take on risks and plan well ahead for the impacts of these potential scenarios, they build competence and are well equipped to handle these risks. However is many situations the risks are mitigated and no negative impact is ever realized, causing teams to be more aggressive in risk taking, and hence the normalization.


In other words, successes and error-free delivery could lead us to gradually accepting higher levels of risks simply because the subsequent effect from a previous risk never occurred. When this normalization occurs we start to operate outside of acceptable parameters without realizing, potentially falling into trouble.