Risk managers should build relationships and join forces with the other managers responsible for performance improvement initiatives, like lean management, quality, safety, environment, security, internal audit or others. Risk managers should participate in relevant major performance improvement workshops (for example, kaizen sessions during lean projects) to better understand sources of risks and suggested solutions, or at least review the results of those analytical sessions.

Risk managers should make sure that common risk management principles and language are used throughout the organization.  

The ISO experts at the ISO Technical Committees level are doing it, making sure the language in ISO9001:2015 and ISO14000:2015 is consistent with ISO31000:2018, so no excuses for the risk managers on the ground. 

Here is a small and clever case we came across during our research. One risk manager we have interviewed approached a CEO of a large investment fund to implement risk management across its 90+ portfolio companies. The CEO said it was a good idea, but since the company was a minority shareholder in most portfolio companies, it has to be voluntary, risk manager was not allowed to force them to implement. So, the risk manager played a little trick with the Head of Internal Audit. Here are the steps:

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• Risk manager created an implementation pack and sent a communication to all portfolio company CEOs a free offer to use the pack and implement themselves. 1 out of 90+ responded and the risk manager worked with them to set the foundation.
  
• One month later the risk manager worked with internal audit to include risk management questions into the annual compliance review questionnaire for the portfolio companies.
  
• Six months later, not surprisingly, most portfolio companies received non-compliance report for the lack of or limited risk management.
  
• Another month later the risk manager once again sent a communication to all portfolio company CEOs a free offer to use the risk management implementation pack. This time more than 65% of all portfolio companies opted in. All this was achieved within a single year. Not bad.