Best-Selling Author Michele Wucker on Gray Rhinos & Risk Management

Photo by Hal Shipman

Photo by Hal Shipman

Michele Wucker founded Gray Rhino & Company to help leaders, organizations, and communities to identify and strategize responses to “gray rhino” risks: the term she coined to urge people to face up to challenges that are obvious and probable yet which we are all too likely –but not condemned– to neglect despite, and often because of, their size.

The gray rhino metaphor has moved markets, shaped financial policies, inspired lyrics of a global K-pop hit song, made headlines around the world in more than 50 countries and over 30 languages, and shaped high-level debates from Davos to NATO to the Munich Security Conference to the Drucker Forum.

What does risk mean to you? How do you manage it? Is your relationship to risk something you can transform? On this episode we discuss those questions and more with Michele Wucker, the author of four books including The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore.

Her new book is You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World. Michele is a Guggenheim Fellow and former President of the World Policy Institute. Our conversation covers risk anticipation, management and mitigation strategies for individuals and organizations and much more. You can follow Michele on Twitter @wucker and learn more about her books and business at https://www.wucker.com and thegrayrhino.com.

Andrew VontzEpisode 37