Picture credit: riverdaughter
Why should so many business risks be kept off the record, because they are taboo subjects? We need to make sure that we are not acting as unofficial keepers of the taboo zoo.
Every organization has corporate taboos, difficult conversations that are avoided – either until a crisis finally flushes the subject out into the open, or until some brave soul grasps the initiative.
Very often this behaviour is accompanied by metaphorical references to big beasts, for example “the elephant in the room” or the “gorilla in the corner.” Powerful beasts indeed. Nobody talks about the dormouse in the corner.
And yet the behaviour (avoidance of taboo subjects) is far more appropriate to a slightly lesser creature: the Ostrich, which is often portrayed as burying its head in the sand when confronted with a threat.
Picture credit: spartacus007
Elephants and Gorillas have strength and quiet dignity, whereas the Ostrich is ungainly and awkward – albeit fleet of foot.
Perhaps that’s why we subconsciously choose the more powerful comfort creatures to excuse our reticence.
We feel that it’s OK not to tackle such a powerful beast as an elephant or a gorilla even though we are simply acting timidly by helping to sustain corporate taboos that will probably damage us later on.
We need to make sure that our business and personal culture doesn’t encourage us to bury our heads in the sand.
Whenever we duck an opportunity to deal with previously unspoken issues in a properly open and mature approach, we are building on the risk that we will soon find ourselves up to our armpits in alligators!
Picture credit: turtlemom4bacon
Maybe a good way of dealing with this problem is to add a new subsection to our corporate risk register: Taboo Zoo.
Perhaps for the first time, this approach would gives us a means of recording and expressing the very real risks that otherwise go deliberately unspoken in many organizations.
Why should any risk be off the record? Let’s get the taboos out into the open and enjoy better opportunities for properly joined-up management. Have you got a good way of dealing with your own taboo zoo?
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