Environmental Risks: Setting Priorities During a Risk Session

This note is a continuation of the discussion on conducting risk sessions for identifying environmental risks using the ENVID* tool.

So, we have decided to hold a risk session and gathered a great group of experts. What do we want to achieve by the end of the risk session? What final product do we expect upon completion?

A strange question indeed!

The logical answer is: "We expect a completed environmental risk register (list, record, etc.)." (A typical example of an environmental risk register is shown below).

How practical is this goal? Let's discuss.

A risk session usually lasts 1-2 working days, with effective brainstorming taking about 4-6 hours.

A typical example of how a risk session proceeds: A risk idea arises (≈2 min). The group tries to formulate the perfect risk name (≈5 min). The group approaches the financial damage assessment, and arguments begin — someone frantically searches for something on their computer, someone makes a phone call, someone runs to their office for paperwork. Generally, if not strictly limited, calculating financial damage can take 15-20 minutes. In total, discussing a single risk can take 20-25 minutes. Simple arithmetic shows that with this approach, you will only manage to discuss about 10 risks during the entire session.

It is worth asking yourself: what do we want to get out of the risk session? A neat, modest risk register that is far from transparent, or a raw document that reflects the true situation?

I have found the answer for myself. The goal is transparency. The main task of the expert group during a face-to-face risk session is to identify as many risks as possible and provide their preliminary descriptions. All detailed calculations and final wording are done outside the risk session and not necessarily by the experts.

What must be recorded during the risk session:

• A rough, draft name for the risk;
• Risk probability;
• A sketch of the damages without calculations. For sections involving qualitative assessment that does not require calculations, scores may be indicated.

What can be done outside the risk session:

• Finalizing the risk name;
• Calculating risk significance;
• Detailed calculation of damages based on the areas identified during the risk session.

Example of a register following a risk session (fields highlighted in color are mandatory).

Practice shows that keeping records during a risk session in this format significantly speeds up the process. An order of magnitude more risks are identified and recorded. Of course, this creates a certain amount of work outside the risk session, but it can be completed without involving specialized experts.

A final bonus: this approach prevents the final risk assessment from being seen during the session, which stops experts from manipulating the score. Artificially lowering or inflating assessments for personal interests is a common problem in environmental risk management.

* ENVID (Environmental Identification) is a common global practice for identifying and assessing environmental risks. ENVID is an "environmental" adaptation of the even better-known HAZID (Hazard Identification) tool. The method is based on structured brainstorming.