ISO 31000 - The Lost Way of Risk Management

Has risk management lost sight of what it was originally supposed to achieve?

In this RiskMasters — The Download extract, Grant Purdy offers a provocative perspective on how the risk management profession has evolved and why he believes it needs to reconnect with decision-making.

Grant reflects on the different philosophies that developed around ISO 31000 and COSO ERM. He argues that while ISO 31000 had the potential to move risk management towards decision support, tensions remained between integrating risk thinking into normal management decisions and maintaining separate risk management processes, terminology and frameworks.

He also discusses a proposed revision of ISO 31000 around 2015 which, in his account, would have reframed the standard around helping organisations recognise and take account of uncertainty when making decisions. That more fundamental change was ultimately not adopted.

The discussion then moves beyond standards to the profession itself.

Grant questions whether risk management has become too focused on its own processes, documentation and terminology, including the difficulty practitioners still have in agreeing what the word “risk” actually means.

His central argument is clear: risk management should not become an end in itself. Its value should come from helping organisations understand uncertainty and make better decisions.

• Grant Purdy's perspective on ISO 31000 and COSO ERM
• Why integrating risk management with decision-making remains difficult
• The proposed rethink of ISO 31000 around decision support and uncertainty
• Whether risk management has become too focused on process and documentation
• Why definitions of risk continue to create difficulties for the profession
• Why Grant believes risk management should ultimately support better decisions

This extract is taken from the full CPD-accredited RiskMasters conversation with Grant Purdy on ISO 31000, risk management, uncertainty and better decision-making.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or at aevitium.com.