Discover a powerful 5-Step Strategy and Two Mindset Tactics so you can manage and control the powerful Fifth Force that shapes and drives Home Makeover Projects everywhere.
In the movie Jurassic World, Chris Pratt's character, velociraptor specialist Owen Grady, saves the life of a colleague who had the misfortune to topple into the velociraptor enclosure. In this super exciting sequence, Chris Pratt courageously positions himself between the aggressive dinosaurs and the guy they're about to attack. He dominates the advancing dinos as he calmly instructs them "Stand down. Stand Down, Blue. Stay right there ...".
And that's kind of a metaphor for managing home makeover projects. Each day can feel like having to dominate aggressive dinosaurs in full attack mode. And when you get it wrong, well, things can get out of hand. In case you haven't seen the movie, I'll drop a link to a YouTube clip in the show notes.
In a previous Blog Post, I shared four key forces that shape and influence home makeover projects and I explained that there's a Circus skill all homeowners need to master if you want to run your home makeover project successfully. No spoilers here ... if you don't know what I'm talking about, then make sure to read that Post.
In that Blog Post, I let slip that there's actually a fifth force that shapes and drives projects. It could be argued, that its influence is even greater than all the others. It affects all home makeover projects - projects of any and every size and everywhere in the world.
It's impossible to avoid. And that means homeowners planning home makeover projects must be aware of it and must understand how it affects their projects so it can be managed and kept under control.
By now you've probably guessed that the 5th powerful force, that influences home makeover projects, is "risk".
Let me reassure you. All risks can be managed. That doesn't mean bad stuff won't happen on your home makeover project, but you can definitely be prepared to deal with them when it appears. What you need is a game-plan for responding to the risks that occur on your project, whatever they may be.
A simple way to think about risks, in the context of home makeovers, is to ask yourself "what could go wrong ?" Anything that could go wrong is a source of risk.
Managing risks on your home makeover project is a process of identifying, analysing and then preparing a response to those things that might go wrong. The reason we do this is that it helps to keep the project on track and achieve the intended end result - that dream home outcome.
It may seem negative to focus on all the bad things that could happen, but actually it's a very proactive process. As the old saying goes, "forewarned is forearmed". Being forewarned means you can put a plan in place to deal with a risk event before it causes problems for your project.
Most homeowners don't even think about risks in any kind of intentional way. Most homeowners just lie awake at night, losing sleep as they anxiously worry about the bad things that might happen.
Well, I really don't want that to be you and, good news, it doesn't have to be.
I'd like to recommend a simple, easy to apply, 5 step strategy, any homeowner can immediately start using to manage risks on any and every home makeover project, anywhere in the world.
And here it is ...
Step 1 : Identify the stuff that might go wrong. List as many things as you can think of but don't bother to include things that are completely outside of your control ... like an earthquake, an alien invasion or the end of the world. And if something isn't likely to result in an obvious problem for the project then you can note it but not waste too much time proceeding through the next steps on that item.
Since you're probably not an expert at construction projects, a very effective tactic is to ask your professional advisers - like architects and engineers - and construction team - the General or main Contractor - to let you know if they foresee any risks. And a particularly powerful way to do this is to host a project meeting, ideally on site where you get the key participants in the room together - at the very least the architect and engineers, if you have them, and the principal contractors and sub-contractors - and brainstorm together the risks the project faces. Group brainstorming makes this process very focused, much faster and in one session, you can identify most of the significant risks.
Step 2 : Evaluate the risks. For each risk identified, identify who or what is at risk and how. Ask "what are the consequences of that bad thing happening ?" Consider if there is any time limit to the risk occurring.
This leads to Step 3 : Grade the level of risk. Not all risks have an equal impact on the project. You can use your intuition and the experience of your professional and construction team to categorise each risk as low, medium or high.
If you want to or need to, usually based on the size and complexity of your project, you can even use a bit of rocket science ... well, not really rocket science - if I can do it then you definitely can ... and I promise I'm no rocket scientist !!
Basically, you rate each risk in terms of both likelihood of happening and impact if it happens. For likelihood you could rank from one to five where one is very unlikely to five which is very likely. For impact you can also rank from one to five where one is low or minimal impact and five is severe impact.
You then take those two numbers and multiply them to generate a risk value. Some risks are unlikely to happen and even if they do, the impact is low - so that might be 1x1 which equals 1. At the other end of the scale, a very likely risk event with a huge impact would generate a value of 5x5 which equals 25.
You can then use those values as the basis for your grading low, medium or high.
This in turn leads to Step 4 : Plan your response or reaction. This is where you decide what you'll do if a particular risk event actually happens. You should focus on the high-risk items, those items with a higher value. With your team, you can develop a strategy to mitigate the problem that would arise if that thing happened.
And finally Step 5 : Monitor your identified risks regularly. I recommend weekly or every two weeks. Some risks will become less relevant - like bad weather once the foundations have been excavated - and you might even identify new risks that weren't visible or obvious when you started the process.
There are two additional steps you can take as part of step 4 Planning. These are 4a – Allocate ownership and 4b - Timing.
Allocate ownership is exactly what it sounds like - allocate taking action to a specific person (not just to a company or contractor). Try not to hold too many of the risks yourself or you'll be overwhelmed - it's more efficient to just do the monitoring to make sure risk owners are taking the agreed action if a risk event happens.
Timing is also straightforward - consider the timing of the risk so you can monitor it at the relevant time. Some risks may run throughout the project while others will only be relevant for a short period of time. Most will expire at some point when the risk is no longer a problem.
A very powerful way to formalise this risk management process is to create a risk register where you record the 5 steps mentioned for each risk identified. This should be a live document that you update in real-time or at least very regularly and share with the whole team. You can easily use Word or Google Docs or Excel or similar software.
And finally, there are two very important tactics you must apply in your project risk management process.
The first tactic is to retain perspective. I can just about guarantee that not every single risk you identify will actually go wrong. If they did, you would have experienced uniquely bad luck. It can seem that one should worry about risks compounding ... stacking on top of each other - especially when our risk register is usually formatted as a list.
In reality, that seldom happens. Risks are better considered as a series of items all positioned side-by-side. Some will happen. That's inevitable. But the consequences may be limited and only sometimes compound or stack on top of each other and even then only a few at a time. This is a realistic approach.
The second tactic is to have a relentlessly positive mindset. The unpleasant truth is that, like life itself, home makeover projects are unpredictable and bad stuff does happen. But having a positive mindset will empower your ability to problem-solve.
When you learn to swim, coaches will often tell you "When you panic, you drown". They teach you to stay calm and float to conserve energy. You dramatically improve your chances of survival.
Following this risk management strategy on your home makeover project, retaining a balanced perspective and a positive mindset will super-power your ability to manage bad stuff that might otherwise derail your project leading to you losing money and wasting time.
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