Stream of Consciousness
A frequently asked question “Why do you insist on using a risk (identification) model as the basis for risk management? We can easily do this without a model” It’s a question that comes up on occasion when I am teaching risk management or executing a risk assessment. It’s
Stream of Consciousness
The internal audit perspective To an internal auditor, a risk analysis is relevant because it provides information on the priorities within an audit universe. The auditor will look at all he has right to audit (the audit universe) and ask himself where his task, providing assurance, is best executed. You
Stream of Consciousness
What’s this about voice and obsession? I’m referring to the 2009 SXSW talk by John Gruber of Daring Fireball and Merlin Mann of (amongst others) 43Folders fame, which I recently discovered via Yuvi Zalkow’s excellent visualisation on his blog. The post below, for your information, is a
Stream of Consciousness
Let’s not get run over again There are quite a few performance enhancing methodologies for administrations available on the market today. Most have not proven to be that successful all the time. However, under pressure to enhance performance, the public servants hope if or rather when someone turns government
Stream of Consciousness
How do we start to manage our risks? It’s an often heard question when talking to organizations about risk management. The honest answer to that is that most organizations already manage risk. It’s often just not called risk management. Risk management by any other name Let’s look
Stream of Consciousness
<img src="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5005a5e6c4aa560280eb6f89/5005a617e4b0f8fdce202b5a/5005a617e4b0f8fdce202b6e/1320253142017//img.jpg" alt> First time visitor Even as a hardcore Apple fan, I had never visited a true Apple retail store before. But did I make up for that! The maker of toys Merlin Mann,
Stream of Consciousness
An accidental witness When you're staying as close to St. Paul's Cathedral as we are, it's impossible to not see the 'occupation' of the square in front op the Cathedral's main entrance. When we went out looking for a taxi
Stream of Consciousness
Can you “manage” maturity? Maturity assessments are the new fad of management. You encounter them everywhere. Also, and perhaps most often, in risk management. Risk management and internal control systems need to be assessed and benchmarked and turned upside down and inside out. These tendencies appear to be indicative of
Stream of Consciousness
Looking for a purpose is probably the worst way to find it The more I look at the way I have been active in the past years, the more I am starting to understand you cannot discover your purpose in life by looking for it. On the contrary, the act
Stream of Consciousness
Lean is not a natural state for most organizations Few organizations can truely be defined as lean. They have no real incentive to be. Most organizations, when left to their own devices, tend to grow and focus on justifying their own existence. Any organizational structure, whether public or private, if
Stream of Consciousness
Monday morning quarterbacking After things have gone wrong, we have a tendency to start Monday morning quarterbacking. “How is it possible that they didn’t see that one coming?” Quickly, the comments turn to lack of organization and lack of information exchange. Remember 9/11? Different assessments all pointed to
Stream of Consciousness
My first encounter with BYOB In 1988 I went to the US for the first time, on an AFS exchange program. The confrontation with a new culture, so similar yet so different from what I was used to in Europe was eye-opening. For example, we weren’t that used to