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Disciplined Courage: How to Drive Smarter Risk-Taking

Faster innovation means smarter risks. These 10 questions help your team align, define, and adapt with disciplined courage.

 

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When your CEO demands faster innovation, what they’re really saying is, “Your team needs to take smarter risks—faster.”


This is your chance to differentiate yourself as a leader.


What your CEO may not acknowledge is that risk-taking, particularly with new product development, is fundamentally a cultural dynamic. And culture starts at the top.


Whether your CEO fuels fear or fosters safety, your job is the same:

Build your team’s capacity to take smarter risks. No excuses.


Your team’s deep alignment on this dynamic won’t come from merely synchronizing efforts. You need to build awareness, create shared definitions, and strengthen cultural norms.


Here are 10 questions we share with leadership teams that strengthen smart risk taking:

  1. What is our clear objective—and what uncertainties could impede success?
  2. Where might incomplete information, ambiguity or shallow alignment with stakeholders be creating the feeling of risk?
  3. If we make this decision, what could occur that would require us to adapt our plan? (Define the risk.)
  4. How likely is it that those events occur? And which are under our control?
  5. What are the personal risks stakeholder(s) (including entire functions or teams) may be taking that we must acknowledge?
  6. Are the consequences and rewards equal for all stakeholders? If not, how might on person one or group be more vulnerable than another if [this risk] materializes?
  7. How will we effectively mitigate the risk(s) without slowing progress or adding complexity?
  8. If we take this risk, what’s the most realistic downside?—and the most realistic upside?
  9. What opportunities might we miss if we don’t take this risk?
  10. Are we effectively informing and aligning with senior leadership so they can/will “underwrite” the risk?


BONUS: What is our plan for the speed of information sharing, problem solving, and decision-making as we make discoveries and adapt plans?


With questions like these, risk-taking moves from a feeling of recklessness to measured learning—so your team can operate with the disciplined courage that powers progress.