Risk Management Phobia

I’m not sure if there is such a thing as risk management phobia—it is probably not a recognized psychiatric diagnosis. However, I think that there is a tendency for sport and recreation organizers, owners, directors and coaches to feel uncomfortable—and possibly afraid-- of the process. It may be that it seems overwhelming to develop a risk management program or the discomfort may stem from the fear of being sued if something goes terribly wrong. Fear of the unknown, lack of time to develop a program and procrastination are some of the reasons for this phobia.

The message of this blog is to RELAX! This doesn’t mean that you should be lackadaisical about safety and other risk management issues. My suggestion is that you set incremental risk management goals and gradually work towards meeting them. Of course, ignorance is bliss and as you become more educated regarding risk management, your fears may increase. Hopefully, as you check items off of your risk management to do list, you will feel more confident.

If you simply do not have the time or expertise to address risk management issues, it is a good idea to hire an expert to perform a risk management assessment and develop a risk management plan, including risk management finance analysis. Utilizing risk management services offered by your insurance carrier can be helpful as well. Reading books about sport and recreation risk management will alert you to issues about risk management and provide instruction. My book, Managing Risk in Sport and Recreation Risk Management: The Essential Guide for Loss Prevention, published by Human Kinetics (2009), will provide you with safety checklists, information on risk assessment, risk control, risk finance, disaster planning, transportation, insurance claims, litigation and summaries of published United States appellate court decisions.

Hopefully, with diligent work to educate and improve your organizations’ risk management program, fear of RMP (“risk management phobia”) will be cured.