The Need for Lateral Thinking Processes

As risk managers and internal auditors are our thought processes and working practices suited to the challenges we face?

We are employed to spot the next big disaster around the corner. Will that disaster be entirely predictable – perhaps a repetition of history?

I am afraid to say that many of our thought processes are far too linear to allow us to rise to the challenge of the unpredictable world we live in.

Our environment is dominated by audit programmes, list orientated workflows and quality assurance functions that demand compliance with policies and quash unconventional thinking.

Am I describing your environment?

We can learn a lot from nature.

The brain thinks and imagines using complicated scattergun non-linear processes. The design and shape of trees, leaves and snowflakes and maybe the universe itself is anything but linear.

Are you using Mindmaps to manage your processes of imagination?

Can we perhaps revolutionise the way we look at risk in the future using more imaginative processes that encourage us to use the brains we have been born with and randomly create concepts and ideas and then join dots to allow us to see the bigger picture?

Rising to this challenge will perhaps allow us to get closer to preventing the next global financial crisis!