So, we've got risks, and we need to have. And there are six generic strategies for handling risk. And the first of them is the gold standard to remove the risk entirely to take it away from the project. The problem with this is that it is often hard to find a strategy that meets that criteria, yet actually allows the project to continue. Because often canceling the project is the only way to totally remove the risk. That's it if you can find something.

It's ideal. Now, the most dangerous thing that most people do in the Western world and in large parts of the remaining To the world as well, is to drive a car. Clearly, removing that risk means not driving a car, the golf said. Now if you can't do that, then you can go to what could be thought of as a partial implementation of that, but a different strategy, reducing the likelihood of a motor vehicle accident. So reducing the likelihood is abstract second strategy. And let me give you some examples of tactics.

You could write more slowly. You could make sure that when you get in a car, you're feeling fresh and alert. You can remove distractions, like mobile phones, you can choose the time of day you travel so that the road conditions are optimal. Clearly traveling when it's busier, means you're like more likely to have an accident. But traveling at three in the morning when the roads are quiet, but your brain is working properly means you're more likely to have an accident. So choosing your time of day.

The third strategy is to reduce the impact of any accidents you have. And clearly having a bigger, well maintained car is going to mean the impact to you is less. And of course, safety features are built into cars for this very reason, seatbelts, airbags, ABS braking systems, side impact protection, all will reduce the impact. Interestingly, a lot of things that reduce the impact will increase marginally the likelihood of an accident because psychologically when we feel safer when we feel the impact is less we take more risks. However, there are three things you can do in driving that will reduce both the impact and the likelihood of an accident and the first of them is To drive more slowly and carefully. The second is to gain greater driving skills with advanced training.

And third is to maintain your car well. The fourth thing you can do is to have a contingency plan. A contingency plan won't make the accident less likely. It won't make the accident less bad, but at least you will know what to do if you have an accident. So as drivers, many of us carry things in the car like warning triangles like first aid kits, like fire extinguishers, like hazard warning lights, we join motoring clubs that can provide roadside assistance if we have an accident. And of course, we hold in our heads, the person we'd call who needed help.

And all of those are contingency plans. The fifth approach is to To transfer the risk to someone else, and I'm not talking about getting your partner to go and collect the vegetables from the supermarket. What I'm talking about here is in driving sense taking out insurance. Insurance means that you have an accident, someone else pays, you can't transfer the entire accident risk the risk of injury For example, to the insurance company, but you can transfer the financial risk. Now, in organizational settings, whilst organizations do use insurance products and for large projects, organizations do take out projects insurance, the principal mechanism of risk transfer or many projects within organizations is to contract with experts, consultants and other forms of specialists and contractors. When we enter into a contract contract, what we are doing is we are in a legally binding way, apportioning risk between them parties, and you will choose a supplier who is better able to manage that risk in a cost effective way.

So we've got five means so far we can remove the risk entirely, we can reduce the likelihood or the impact. We can have contingency plans, and we can transfer the risk. But there's one more. where I used to live there was a lad who lived in our road who absolutely adored driving, it was his big thing. So clearly, he wasn't going to remove the risk entirely. And I have to say he drove like a bit of a maniac.

So consequently, reducing the likelihood wasn't his thing. His car, I would say was poorly maintained. I never saw him wear a seatbelt. There was a lot of rust on the car. He wasn't reducing the impact of any accident that happened. And he was probably driving too fast as well.

He did have an accident. It turns out the only contingency plan he seemed to have was to run away from the scene of the accident, which is UK meant that seek immediately became a crime scene as it's illegal to leave the scene of a motor vehicle accident in the UK. And he had no insurance because at the time he was only 16, not legally allowed to be on the road. So what was his strategy? his strategy was to accept all of the risk. But lest you think, why is Mike telling us this strategy is clearly stupid.

There are two different ways to implement the strategy. We try to characterize Firstly, as the 16 year old, foolish approach. And secondly, as the mature, responsible project manager. Now, the 16 year old foolish approach is to say either Well, I'm 16 years old, brilliant writer, I'm, I'm never going to have an accident so I don't need to worry. Or I'm 16 years old, and I'm invincible and if I have an accident, nothing could go wrong. We can A bit older, we know that's not true.

And the statistics tell us that 16 year olds, driving cars have a lot of accidents. The professional project manager approach, the responsible approach is to evaluate the level of the threat. What is the impact if this happens, how likely is it to happen? And then let's look at all of our other five strategies. And if none of those suggest a cost effective approach to reducing the risk, then it's entirely appropriate to make a conscious decision to accept the risk and you do it every day of your life, in both your professional life and in your private life. And indeed, when you get in a car, you leave your car behind.

If you want to go out to the rink, you know you're going to be tired at the end of the evening, possibly having had a drink. You leave a car behind. When you do get in your car, you drive carefully. You reduce the likelihood anywhere your seat belts to reduce the impact You have contingency plans and you hope have insurance as well. But at the end of the day, you know, there is still a residual risk of having an accident. But for you and for me, the value of driving outweighs the assessment of the residual risk.

So we're prepared to take six strategies, you can build an infinite number of tactics and plans on them. But once you remember those six strategies, you know everything you need to know to plan the White House