16 How can we describe risks clearly and unambiguously?

Before we can manage a risk we need to know exactly what it is. But a lot of risk descriptions are unclear or ambiguous, and we often confuse risks with other things, David explains a simple structured way of describing risks that overcomes this problem, separating risks from their causes or their effects.

[TheFarhanatiq]

Hi David, Thank you for your explanations and content that has helped simplify the Risk domain for so many of us.
My question was related to how you sometimes frame the RM process saying "causes are definite events or facts and should not be the focus of how we manage risk"...this may apply to certain types of risks that we cannot influence e.g. Risks related to natural or external threats like floods, earthquakes, regulatory, war, pandemic! We cannot influence these directly as the causes are not within our control. We are trying more so to reduce the impacts or severity of the risk, were it to materialize. However there are other risk types where we can reduce the probability of the risk occurring if we were to reduce or eliminate the causes of those risks e.g. vulnerabilities in our system that can lead to intruders (cyber or physical). If we can reduce or eliminate those causes the chances of the risk occurring are much less. In such cases we should be concerned with the causes...how can we reconcile your risk management definition with this approach? Thank you!

[andrewchang]

Dear Doctor, your videos are incredibly informative and I thank you. I am confused about one thing: ISO 31000 defines risk as the "effect of uncertainty on objectives" but in this video you separate the cause, risk, and effect. As you made clear, "late delivery" is the effect but it is not a risk because "late delivery" is not an uncertainty. Instead, "late delivery" is something that would happen if the risk is not mitigated. Why does the ISO 31000 definition define risk as the "effect"? I prefer your definition of risk which is "uncertainty that matters" because it is much more clear. Did you create your own definition of risk because the ISO 31000 definition is unclear?

[motediwamachelle]

Dr if I have a project with unexperience risk management team, is that mean the project is at risk?