Speaking Up About Risks Without Limiting Your Career Potential
- Priya Venkatesan
- 21 minutes ago
- 2 min read
You called out the risks of taking up the innovative project in a meeting with executives.
You thought you did the right thing (setting expectations) until you got feedback, from top-down, that you are very conservative.
People still believe that you have good technical skills and ownership.
But it's not going well with your perceived low risk taking ability.
Not just that. It's stopping you from getting promoted.
Now you are left wondering what could rectify this perception?
Black hat thinking (critically examining what can go wrong) is not bad. In fact, it helps better planning and mitigation.
However when you use that in 'solo mode' in an executive meeting, you can only go south from there. The reason is: black hat thinking is one aspect of thinking and not the only one.
According to de Bono's 6 thinking hats framework, there are 6 different hats one can use to structure thinking. This not only gives a holistic method to think about different aspects of a problem/situation but also helps a group of people to use a certain hat at a certain time for better coherence.
Now let's look at the executive conversation. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you mention risks
Demonstrate first you understand what is being proposed: Most often, listening is an under-valued skill. So unless you speak up your understanding, the rest of the room assumes you are there to speak your truth but not to listen theirs.
Respond with Blue Hat-->White hat--> Yellow hat-->Black/Red hat-->Green Hat preferrably in that order. Note that ending with Green hat proposes risk mitigation/solution strategies.
Have BATNA in place for negotiation.
This would truly elevate your thinking and enhance your perception as a holistic thinker.
