Calculating the Risk of Risk

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It is funny to me when I hear people talk about being risk-averse, or hear organizations described as risk-averse.  Can anyone other than those who simply out of fear never leave their bed truly be called risk-averse?  Getting out of bed is a risk.  Will you trip going to the bathroom?  Will you start a fire with the stove or the iron or the air conditioner?  Let’s not even consider what might happen once you open the door to venture outside.  So, risk-averse individuals?  Nah, not if you are living.

But what about risk-averse organizations?  The mere act of creating an organization is a huge risk, as is trying to maintain it.  Will it sink or will it soar?  Throw trying to gain a competitive edge into the mix, and gaining ascendancy probably won’t happen without incurring a bit of risk along the way. 

So why so much risk avoidance talk in the sector right now?  Now when organizations are struggling to make it through these dark economic times?  We are all in peril due to a plummeting economy that was beyond, I think, most of the nonprofit sector’s control.  But what we do now that we are here, is in our control.

And we can—and must—take calculated risks to ensure our survival and ultimate sustainability.  What have we got to lose?  Death.  Notice I said calculated risk; nowhere have I said wanton risk.  We must be willing to let go of a program that no longer serves our mission or perhaps start one that directly serves it.  Now is the time to take a good strong broom to the board or do a first ever strategic plan.  It would be completely appropriate to spend some of those precious dollars on a bold marketing strategy to woo both clients and donors.  And the list can and should go on.  We must be willing to make changes, to move in different directions, to forsake the same and business as usual.

Stagnant organizations are dying organizations, regardless of the economic times in which they operate.  They are not progressing, they are not advancing; they are, however, to use words often found in the definition of stagnant — dull, sluggish and stale.  We must take some calculated risks to ensure our own survival and sustainability.