Risk Management at the Top

Together with the renowned training and development provider, Mayo Learning International, CentreStage has embarked on a project to bring risk awareness to senior management at Skanska.

The workshops, which began in May 2005, are something of a departure from ‘the norm’, using CentreStage actors to bring to life fictitious scenarios, in which the processes of ‘winning work’, ‘Carrying out work’ and ‘completing work’ are explored and discussed. A combination of interactive theatre, monologues and written handouts is used to build a picture of the fictitious company and its people, while delegates are invited to spot the problems as they unfold, and make suggestions as to how the situation could be dealt with before spiraling into a huge and costly mistake.

It’s an exciting way of bringing important messages to life. But then there’s something very enlightened about the culture engendered within Skanska UK. As you enter their Maple Cross headquarters, the Learning Centre – equipped with a state of the art IT suite and a huge array of books, tapes and CD-Roms – is the focal point of the impressive foyer. It sends out a clear message about the importance of development within the Skanska ethos, and reflects the company’s reputation for excellence and professionalism. Skanska take risk very seriously, especially when it come to site safety, and with a policy of "never walk past a hazard", the company has one of the best site safety records in the industry.

And now Skanska is applying this philosophy to risk management. Much of the focus of the workshops is on procedure. But the use of actors to put across information allows the delegates to address something much more fundamental: behaviour. For it’s behaviour that defines the way a company operates: how bids are managed; how project teams interact; and how management manages. Without the right behaviours, procedures mean nothing.

For example, perhaps the fictitious Project Manager, John Smith, has elected not to include certain cost overruns in his monthly report to the Commercial Director. It’s obvious that he hasn’t followed correct procedures. But when we ask John Smith why, we may find that he’s concerned about his team’s or his own reputation. Or perhaps he’s the eternal optimist. Whichever, the issue is behavioural.

The use of actors makes the workshops more lively and the subject-matter more engaging, with delegates able to ask the characters in the scenarios questions. The workshops continue until November.

About Skanska UK

Employing 3500 staff nationally and with an annual turnover of around £1 billion, Slanska UK is part of one of the world’s leading construction groups, Skanska, which currently has 53,000 employees in selected home markets in Europe, the US and Latin America. Sales in 2004 totalled USD 17 billion. Find out more at www.skanska.co.uk.