The document discusses communicative risk management and using different management drives to identify risks. It provides an example of how to structure questions to identify risks for different drives: asking directly about potential issues for Red, discussing milestones and threats for Orange, or making small talk and asking open-ended questions for Green. The exercise asks the reader to think of a risk situation, determine their own dominant drive, then establish an interview setting and questions to identify risks from others by considering their drives. The goal is to make people comfortable contributing to risk identification, causes, and mitigation measures.

1. Masterclass Communicative Risk Management with RiskChallenger
© M.A. Buijnsters Exercise B - Management drives PM Day Kiev EN v1.3 MBu.doc Page 1 / 2
Exercise B: Management drives risk*
identification (15 min)
In the communicative risk management philosophy one should interview people about risks in
the language they understand in a setting they feel comfortable with. Within Balance we use
for such the Management Drives approach, but you could also use Insights Discovery, DISC or
another related approach, as long as you speak to the other person in the language he/she
understands and feels comfortable with.
Example:
As a risk manager/coordinator you would like to map the risk associated with obtaining a
building permit for a new to be developed apartment block with shops and restaurants on the
ground floor. This is how you could start the interview and ask the question:
Yellow: Explain when and why permit is necessary
“Do you think getting the permit may create a risk?”
Green: have some small talk first
“You know…that permit…do you know something about it, can you tell me something
about it?”
Orange: Name the milestones and potential threats
“We need such and so by…. this means that…. Do you think we can make it or do you see
any potential issues?”
Blue: Show Gantt chart of the permit obtaining process
“Do you personally think there is any risk in the scheduling?”
Red: Get to the point directly
“Permit XYZ. Do you see any potential issue? Especially with regards to the start
milestone?”
Purple: Ask about how the team is doing with the permit
“Are you sure the cooperation in the team is O.K. to obtain the permit in a smooth way?
Any obstacles you may be aware of?”
Note: You have up to 15 min. for this exercise. Try to spend max. 5 min per management
drive colour
Please turn over to practice management drives in a communicative risk management
setting

2. Masterclass Communicative Risk Management with RiskChallenger
© M.A. Buijnsters Exercise B - Management drives PM Day Kiev EN v1.3 MBu.doc Page 2 / 2
Communicative risk management exercise applying management drives:
Please think of a particular issue/situation a risk may be related to for which you would like
to map and think how you would create a setting and ask one or more questions where
people feel open to contribute to the risk identification, even maybe with related causes,
effects and potential mitigating measures.
Identify which Management Drive colour is dominant in yourself (circle which is applicable):
Yellow / Green / Orange / Blue / Red / Purple
The situation and risk I would like to address for risk analysis is as follows:
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
After having described the situation you would like to establish and the risk to be analysed
interview 2-3 persons next to you for the answers after having found out which management
drive colour he/she has creating
Management
drive colour
Interview setting you
would like to establish
facilitate interviewing
someone with a
particular management
drive (colour)
Interview question(s) you would like to ask
to someone with a particular management
drive (colour) on the potential risk, cause(s)
and effect(s)/consequence(s) in the
situation and risk described above
Example:
Green
Come on let’s go and get
some coffee at the terrace
outside now the sun is still
shining.
By the way before we go back to the office, maybe you
could tell me something about how you feel about this
project and how we get along witch each other. Do you
see any particular risk?
Answer(s)
Obtained
I notice we don’t talk a lot with each other and actually we do not know a lot about each
other either. So I wonder whether people in the team would really support each other
when things get tough, which happens in any project I worked on so far …
Risk = Lack of team development in the Tuckman forming an performing stages
……………..
Answer(s)
obtained
…………….
Answer(s)
obtained
…………..
Answer(s)
obtained