We know our critical risks. But how confident are we that people are actually protected?
We work from the serious-harm pathway outward: understanding exposure, defining what controls need to achieve and finding evidence that protection exists where the work happens.
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Critical Risk Management frameworksCritical risk reviewsCritical Control ManagementCritical Control VerificationBowtie & Barrier AnalysisControl Performance StandardsControl effectivenessCritical Risk AssuranceCRM capability and coaching
Serious injuries and fatalities are rarely prevented by treating every risk, hazard and control as equally important.
Critical Risk Management brings deliberate focus to the events and exposures capable of causing serious harm — and to the controls relied upon to prevent or mitigate those outcomes.
Here we explore the principles, methods and practical questions behind effective Critical Risk Management.
Explore Critical Risk insights ↓
Start with what could happen.
Critical Risk Management can become complicated quickly.
Bowties.
Control libraries.
Performance standards.
Verification.
Dashboards.
Assurance.
Technology.
Before any of those, there is a simpler question:
What could seriously harm someone?
That question changes the focus.
Instead of beginning with every hazard in the workplace, begin with the events and exposures capable of producing fatal or life-changing harm.
Then understand how that harm could occur.
Only then decide which controls matter most.
What is a critical risk?
A critical risk is an event or exposure with the credible potential to result in serious or fatal harm.
That distinction is important.
“Mobile equipment” is a hazard source or category.
“Vehicle interaction resulting in a person being struck or crushed” describes the event.
“Working at height” describes an activity or exposure category.
“A person falling from an elevated work position” describes the event.
Defining the risk clearly makes it easier to understand the pathway to harm and the controls needed to interrupt it.
Define the event.
Then understand the pathway.
Hazard isn't the same as risk.
These terms are often used interchangeably.