One of my favorite things about being a journalist is that no two days are the same, partly because there always is something new to learn and new perspective to be gained if you're listening. There's a lot of joy to be found in the creative process of producing each issue of NU, and the journalist's job, as I see it, is to be simultaneously informative and entertaining.
So when a feature subject entrusts you with telling his or her story, that responsibility is never something to be taken lightly. An enormous amount of detail is required to bring a subject to life and to accurately chronicle his or her accomplishments in an end product that's satisfying to yourself, the subject and your readers.
Along the way, there are myriad ways one can slip up if great care isn't taken.
The role of the journalist is really not unlike that of the risk manager: Both positions involve analyzing and presenting actionable information to the benefit of those you serve, and a good deal of conjecture on what's next over the horizon and how it might affect your charges.
We're also both expected to get it right the first time.
In our effort to get it right," one part of the journalist's own risk management practice is to thoroughly check facts and quotes in your work. An essential part of telling the best story possible is conveying exactly what someone meant when they spoke with you and making sure you don't put words in their mouth.
Such was the case for this month's cover feature, for which I extended the courtesy of checking the accuracy of my quotes with IHS Director of Global Risk Management Nahua Maunakea, president of RIMS' Rocky Mountain Chapter.
We'd made it nearly all the way through his quotes with very few tweaks when the congenial Maunakea made a sudden point of calling out a word—one so often employed in corporate speak—that he didn't want to be "heard" using: "Challenges."
The quote: "I enjoy working at IHS because of the variety of opportunities we're presented with on a daily basis." Maunakea emphasized to me use of the word "opportunities" rather than "challenges" because, as he explained, "I correct folks all the time … they are not 'challenges' or 'problems.' They are opportunities to find creative ways to resolve things."
Maunakea is an indomitable spirit from whom we could all learn a thing or two about taking a metaphysical approach to daily problem-solving. In the days that followed I began trying to adopt this mindset, to think of the day's challenges not as problems, but recognized and accepted as opportunities if you choose to think of them that way.
This mindset does work for me, to a point—I am Irish, after all. But the more I thought about it, the most successful risk managers I've ever met are also among the most relaxed professionals I've ever spent time with. That may be due to the fact that they're so far ahead of the curve mentally that they're more prepared than the rest of us when challenges—er, opportunities—abound, but I think it's more attributable to a mindset of worrying less and doing more: to view pending or future risks as a set of concerns that are never bigger than you are, and that just may contain a larger step forward than you had anticipated, if you know where to look.
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