After years spent on ever more detailed risk information gathering, analysis, mitigation, and reporting, senior management, the Library's Board, and our largest external funder were not convinced that the process was achieving credible results. Increasing the amount of information had not produced confidence that attention was being placed on the most critical risks. Narrowing the focus to concentrate on fewer, but more critical risks, producing reports that highlighted the actual risk, and, allowing the discussion to center on the adequacy of the risk mitigation allowed for better risk/opportunity decision making in the process. In this case, less became more.

Risk discussion narrowed to those items that would have the most impact on the achievement of our Strategic Plan, and drew attention away from low probability/low impact risks that were being appropriately controlled to eliminate or transfer the risk impact. Instead of reviewing a formulaic risk register, attention was immediately directed to those items with high residual risk and on the appropriateness and adequacy of mitigation for those threats. The creation of a heat map allowed the likelihood of residual risk to be highlighted in a very visual way, and eliminated discussion about risks that were already at acceptable levels.

Strategic risk analysis and discussions at the Calgary Public Library have moved past the loop of discussing every risk as if it were equally critical to the achievement of the strategic plan. Only critical risks that have significant residual risk after mitigation are discussed at a decision making and governance level. The use of a heat map for these risks has become a very visual cue to where attention needs to be paid and has allowed these risk areas to receive the added emphasis that was being missed when every risk was part of the review process.