Courtesy of NASA
Why is it that some people can fly 25km a second, while floating in space, AND fix a multimillion dollar spaceship, while I can’t even park my car at 5km an hour?
Risk Management.
This perspective came to me yesterday in the middle of my day. I was on my way to see one of our speaker clients, astronaut Dave Williams, and essentially ignored a huge yellow sign of ‘CAUTION’, as I was parking. Before I knew it there was a huge crashing sound that jolted me to turn around. There behind me was the completely shattered glass of my back window.
And I had an event to attend in 15 minutes. I didn’t want to miss my planned meeting for the day to see Dave Williams speak. Williams is one of Canada’s most accomplished astronauts, holding the record for number of spacewalks in a single mission. He’s inspirational, humble, funny and so perceptive.
His theme: ‘Don’t Take Chances – Manage Risk’. As he applied it to the zero tolerance approach in NASA , his hospital work and in business, I realized it also relates to even the most basic of activities day to day.
Had I paid more mind to the sign and used better judgment while parking, or even better, chose an entirely different parking spot, life yesterday would have been so much more manageable.
Next time you sense caution – via your experience, intuition or a big caution sign – take heed and consider how best to manage the risk. And avoid backing into immovable objects…
Tags: Astronaut, Dave Williams, manage risk, NASA, National Speakers Bureau, NSB, Risk Management
