Erroneous Risk Assessment and Mitigation #2: Sleight-of-hand

As we all know, the way sleight-of-hand works is that we are watching the wrong hand. Sometimes in risk management we or they are watching the wrong situation. The classic is youth sports during lightening. Everybody talks about “kids swinging metal bats.” They are not the ones in immediate danger – the bats are aluminum, a poor conductor. The person most in danger is the pitcher on the mound, or the coach on the sidelines. Again, as per post #1, lightening deaths at a little league game is slim, but it is easy to make it 0 – and who likes playing ball in a downpour – but it is a matter of getting everyone off the field and into a grounded or insulated space. Because lightening was not understood, one league insisted that the players get into the dugouts, which, usually were chain link enclosures! The rule increased, rather than reduced the danger to the kids.

• Consider where the danger, if any, actually is. Focus on that.