“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” Mark Zuckerberg
In the public sector, everything is changing quickly – budgets are being tightened, baby boomers are starting to retire, technology needs from the public increase every day, and we are continued to be told to “do more with less.” Based on all this evidence:
- Why does it feel that government is more risk adverse than ever?
- Why aren’t we truly implementing new approaches to how we buy from shared in savings to no-cost ad models?
- Why aren’t we trying innovative new approaches to furloughs and staffing cuts (such as voluntary sabbaticals or Netflix model of truly trimming the low performers)?
As noted in Zuckerberg’s quote, the biggest risk is not taking any risk when change is evolving quickly.
And as a government employee, you are perfectly set-up to take risks. I love this quote from the blog post “Risk Aversion and Job Security“
“Now, if you had really strong job security – as most federal civilians do – you could afford to take a few risks, couldn’t you? So long as you aren’t committing an actual crime – what’s the worst that’s gonna happen to you? If your project doesn’t work or you make a mistake, you’re gonna come to work tomorrow and keep collecting the same pay. So why are federal civilians so unbelievably risk averse? “
Why do you think govies are so risk adverse?
How are you taking risks in your agency?
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