ORM minimizes risks

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Earlier in my career I had the privilege of flying with generals at the highest levels of command. While that provided a view of the Air Force not seen by many, it is not that experience which impressed me. 

No, what impressed me was just how down to earth many of those gentlemen were and how much they would open up about the big picture. I found their humility quite admirable as well. 

Why do I take the time out of a busy day to tell you about this? 

Not to be impressive or tout the sincerity of our senior leaders, but to pass on some simple philosophy shared by one of these fine Airmen. Something called “forward retrospection.” 

What exactly do I mean? 

Well, it is nothing more than what we refer to these days as operational risk management. I first heard forward retrospection in the mid 90s while the quality craze was going on. This profound and quite simple concept struck me right away as a brilliant approach to anything we do in our daily lives, professional or otherwise.
Just project yourself forward, visualize the task at hand and then look back at the potential pitfalls, outcomes [good or bad] and what the subsequent repercussions may be. 

Seems easy enough, but you may say some tasks are not so basic as to be able to predict various outcomes, and I would agree. 

The world we live in has never been more abstract with grey at every turn; however, for those tasks the concept with still help mitigate your risk. 

After all, ORM strives to eliminate risk, but its charter is to minimize risk. 

Besides, while there may be plenty of gray in our world there is still plenty of clear and whether you call it my neat new phrase or its official title it can still help prevent clearly easy situations from becoming dangerous.