Guest Post by Malcolm Peart (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

“That’s a Red Flag!” goes the cry from some when something amiss is recognised.  However, many project participants don’t realise that their Project sails through a sea of flags and that, on some occasion, the flags can be read as red by somebody at some time.

In a similar nautical vein the Roman writer Ovid once poetized “The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea“.  While written some 2,000 years ago it is as true today as it ever was and a reminder to us all that risks lurk everywhere.  Some risks may not be identified, let alone assessed and may go unnoticed until they strike.  We need to be aware and vigilant and avoid a complacent belief that a risk register is the be all and end all.

Guest Post by Malcolm Peart (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Email is 50 this year…its Golden Anniversary!  It ‘happened’ in 1971 when Ray Tomlinson, the late computer engineer and first user, sent a transmission to himself utilising two independent computers…a revolutionary innovation at the time.  The content of that primordial message is long forgotten and the same may also be the fate of many of the ~300 billion emails that are sent almost every day by the estimated 4 billion users around the world.  Communication is said to bring us together or set us apart and email is no different.

Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

The Ever Given grounding in the Suez Canal is one of those events that will be labeled a “Black Swan” for sure.  A rouge wind hits the ship turning the stern and wedging the vessel, bow and stern grounded straddling the canal and stranding ships entering from either end.  The date Tuesday 23 March 2021.  At around 7.40 a.m. local time the Ever Given ran aground.  At nearly 200 feet wide and 1,300 feet long, it easily took up the width of the channel.

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