Risk Management

I have a recent event to share with you. I was accomplishing a task that I’ve done many times before. Although the task is familiar to me, I do not accomplish it with great frequency, usually about 2 or 3 times a year. It is a seemingly mundane task. However this time, during the execution of the task, my hand became entangled in the mechanism. No broken bones, but a little blood and a lot of pain. There are a couple of things that stick out in this scenario. One was discussed earlier, the frequency and seemingly inconsequential character of the task. But the other point is, I was caught in this mechanism and could not get my hand out of it by myself.
Now, understand, I’m a mechanic at heart, I knew exactly what to do, but did not have the proper tools to do it. I could not go get the proper tools because I was “attached” to this mechanism. I was extremely lucky that there was a good friend close by. Had I been alone, well…it would have been a lot more painful. My friend was able to free me from my predicament and I applied some ice, probably should have had a couple of stitches, but a tight band aid kept the bleeding to a minimum.

The main point here is that things happen completely unexpectedly. In an earlier post I referred to my youngest son and a mishap while snowboarding. As people, we walk a fine line between staying active and being cautious. I remember a quote from a friend, “A ship is always safest in port, but that is not what a ship was designed to do”. We can always just so nothing, take no risks, but that is not what we, as people, are designed to do.

So Risk Management is the key, a little like Blue Bell Ice Cream. We can eliminate all the risks we can, and manage the rest. (For those of you who do not know Blue Bell Ice Cream, contact me later and I’ll clarify). Even with the best Risk Management, there is just going to be sometimes when things do not go as planned. That’s why we send men and women into space. We could just send robots, but a robot cannot be programmed to “adapt, improvise and overcome” obstacles that were not in the original plan.

So, plan, do your best to manage risk, and live life to the fullest.

Bubba out.