You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know, Or Do You?

Innovation You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know, Or Do You? Thomas Polk Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Jul 28, 2022, 07:15am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Thomas Polk, CISSP, HCISPP — Chief Information Officer at Midwest Eye Consultants .

getty “We don’t know what we don’t know” are words that you may have heard from an employee reporting on an issue or problem. The phrase came to the forefront during a press briefing on Afghanistan given by defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in February 2002 : “There are known knowns. There are things we know we know.

We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say; we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

” So, how does this apply to your organization and its risk stance? The quote from Rumsfeld was a modified application of the Johari Window. The Johari window model was developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 as a psychological model for interpersonal communication. The model is based on the idea that issues are known or unknown by us and known or unknown by others around us.

These concepts can be applied to risk management and should be part of your risk evaluation process. The model has four combinations (instead of Rumsfeld’s three). Known Knowns: These are risk factors that you’re aware of, and their impact is well established and able to be addressed.

This is what most organizations have developed and implemented for risk planning. Known Unknowns: These are risk factors that you’re aware of, but the impact or likelihood of the risk isn’t established. These types of risks are what you need to develop contingency plans for according to set levels of impact.

Develop your plans based on various levels of impact, and then establish your responses from there. MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event Unknown Knowns: These are risk factors that you aren’t aware of or haven’t considered, but the risks exist. This is the combination that Rumsfeld didn’t consider, and in the Johari model, this is called the “blind spot.

” Organizations take the attitude of “that won’t happen to us” or “that can’t happen here,” underestimating the likelihood of something happening and ignoring the risk area. This is the area in which you should spend some time and effort. You may not need to develop complete plans but at least think about potential responses and ways to mitigate the issue.

Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. Unknown Unknowns: These are risk factors you aren’t aware of, and no one else has considered these risks either. This can only be addressed by flexible processes and management.

Being able to address these items is based on the speed by which you can adapt to a new situation or risk. The work here is on flexible decision-making and leadership. You need to establish clear areas of responsibility and decision making because it will be a process of quick decisions and managing an ever-changing environment.

Managing risk for an organization is an ongoing process that requires one to think in different ways. By applying the Johari model to risk processing, one can develop a holistic and flexible approach that addresses both well-identified and totally unique situations. Risk can never be eliminated, but by proper planning, it can be managed.

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