The Psychic Noise of Risk

or

... how I stopped worrying and learned to love risk management ...

As regular readers of the blog will know, I am an admirer of David Allen's work, particularly his Mr Allen takes a lists-based approach to personal management. I was introduced to mind mapping first, so I was a little snooty about lists, regarding them as a fairly primitive form of making notes. However, I now realise that's silly: mind maps themselves can be radial lists.

However, one phrase gripped me in David Allen's approach where he describes all the uncaptured things we need to do seem to swim around in our heads as "psychic noise", distracting us from being able to focus upon the matter in hand, or what is most important at any given time. "Yes," I thought, "this noise needs to get out of my head and onto paper so that I can have confidence that I will come back to it at a later, more appropriate time." Thus with the item 'parked' on an appropriate list or mind map, I can then focus on the immediate matter in hand.

Continuing the theme in my last post, risk, there is a similar dynamic when it comes to the value of identifying risk. Whatever we may be planning, there will be uncertain threats and opportunities. Simply naming these and working out appropriate responses become enormously 'uncluttering' mentally, as we go about our business planning.

OGC have now built this into their best management practice in projects (PRINCE2), programmes (MSP) and at all levels of the business (M_o_R). It is now standard practice in every business case to list the major risks and factor in the costs of sensible responses to them.

As I practice this more myself in pearcemayfield, I can say this works. I notice that the 'psychic noise' in my head is reducing.

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