Prudent Risk Takers

I love calculated risks. For me calculated risks are well thought out decisions that look risky to outsiders. They look dangerous because they are different, but make logical sense. They are prudent decisions made through a process. They also bring real low cost with the possibility of high reward. One apparently risky decision our Church made a few years ago was to move to the Timonium Fairgrounds for our Christmas Eve Masses. When our pastor Michael White suggested the idea, I thought it was crazy, but as you looked at the data and the context it simply made sense. We had learned through the past few years that people wanted to come in the 4 o’clock or 5 o’clock hour and so we needed seats for those optimal times. The year before we had knocked ourselves out trying to accommodate the glut of crowds at those optimal times but many people left unhappy because the facility simply couldn’t contain them. If we failed in the new setting, so we failed and the earth would still be on its access. We would have lost some money and some reputation, but it would not have ended our work. We would live to fight again.

Unsuccessful people never risk at all or they take wild risks. Wild risk taking means taking risks that can do severe damage to our organizations or families. Wild risk taking has the capacity to destroy our endeavors completely.

Successful people take calculated risks. In his book Great by Choice, Jim Collins calls it “empirical risk taking.” Get data, analyze and then move out. On these risks, he advises to fire bullets than cannon balls. In other words, take many small risks to see what works in your industry and then when you discover what works, put more and more of your resources into what you have found to work.

At the end of the day, calculated risk taking simply means risking being wrong. Often the risk is that others will laugh at you and make fun of you. They are choices that feel much more like risk than they are in reality.

What are some small risks you can take?