How do you collate all the various bits of risk data you gather from third-parties? How’s that working for you?
Yesterday morning, I had a familiar call. “We’ve already got the AML checklist from DFI [development finance institutions] 1, and then got the sanctions one from DFI 2, and now DFI 3 need us to implement an anti-corruption system. Should we integrate them?”
As the interview progressed, we discussed logic. More precisely, how to integrate decision “if/then” questions. Using logic, we can ask relevant questions and skip the ones that cause everyone pain. BUT…
…what if the computer says no?
I asked the interviewee if they operated on a Microsoft or Google platform. Sadly, the former. The integrated, logic-driven AML, fraud, sanctions, and anti-corruption investment risk assessment framework had to be…
Excel.
I get it; it’s ubiquitous. However, we may need to distinguish between the Excel tool we use to crunch data and the interface we use to gather information.
Whatever route, if we want to save time, get better integrated (not duplicative) data into risk assessments, and have people complete checklists properly (especially third-parties), we should use tools built for the era of one-click pay, not Windows 95.
13 universes and otherwordly wisdom
My daughter had an idea for a story after observing how bubbles can come together, conjoin and then separate. She’s created 13 parallel universes, where collisions occur infrequently and briefly but just enough to allow knowledge sharing across profoundly different realms. For example, when the AI universe meets the animal-led universe.
I like meeting people who do very different things. It’s a chance to learn. But after my daughter’s explanation of her plot and plan (on a long walk), I wondered if I could add a bit of intentionality to meetings with folks in other universes. This week included a professional mediator, an environmental consultant, and an author of engineering instructional courses.
After we did the “What do you do?” bit, and as we got a handle on each other’s roles, I asked, “Using your knowledge and skills, how would you make risk management better?”
In a subsequent project-related call, a client relayed how a project had dragged on for two years because of departmental arguments about who should own which risks. The mediator’s advice came to mind. Paraphrasing, “In mediation, you can call the other party whatever you want and rant as much as you like, but we don’t fixate on who did what. The goal is to move forward. We have a day (always just one day) to reach a settlement. If people can’t bear to be in the same room, they come in individually, and we propose the way forward until it’s agreed. But agreed it must be.”
What universes would you like to collide with? If you don’t know, maybe ask colleagues in different functions how they’d help you do what you do, for starters.