Jean Roberts

In this almost final chapter, we’ll examine the art and science of risk management relevant to spiritual journeying:

• ‘art’ is the doing of a thing, and
• ‘science’ is the understanding of a thing.

For the first half of my life, I was ‘doing’ my spiritual journeying, with total focus on the ‘doing’.

Since then – and almost certainly through the remainder of my life – the challenges, opportunities and rewards have and will contribute to a steady and evolving ‘understanding’.

As with any journey, there have been unanticipated events along the way, with unexpected pauses to assess what I already knew, and what else I needed to know. Examples include misunderstandings or misinterpretations – either on my part or the part of others. At such a time, I heed the wise saying that it’s not what happens to us that’s important: it’s how we react or respond to what’s happening to us that’s important.

‘React’ can imply an immediate and often unconsidered action: whereas ‘respond’ indicates allowing – or taking time to allow – my emotions to subside, then to consider options and alternatives, and finally to initiate a planned action – or in many cases, my planned action is to do nothing.

There have been, and are, risky experiences:

Some risky experiences I’ve accepted or allowed in order to better understand a particular situation, a relationship or a reaction. I’d call these ‘calculated’ risks – I’ll try this and see how things turn out:

• there is great benefit in keeping a spiritual journal: mine is now a major electronic resource, having started out as hand-written notes in 1986
• I can read back through the years and recognize how and how often this strategy has worked or not worked, and am able to appreciate short- and longer-term influences on or even changes in my behaviour and language

Other risky experiences have simply crept up on me, and I’m left wondering – How did this happen?

• with the best of intentions, I have set out on a particular path only to find that the path has not led to where I had expected or planned to go – but rather it has brought me back full-circle to where I had started from, and happily with an increased understanding of my spiritual journey as a result
• the benefit of the path had been the increased understanding gained, rather than the path itself.

In a few instances, some risky experiences have overwhelmed me to the extent of confusion, and even during the confusion I’m asking – What’s this all about?

• as well as learning to understand our own motives and behaviours, it’s most important that we learn to understand the motives and behaviours of others
• I’m constantly reminded of the scripture that unless we love ourselves, we cannot love others – and, in this case, unless we understand ourselves, we cannot understand others

There is one risky experience that I frequently bring to mind and respectfully share with others. On this occasion I was ‘put’ into a situation by one manager that would enable him to further his workplace credibility. It followed that I was then accused by another manager of acting in a particular manner that was totally uncharacteristic of me, and expected by both managers to forget that this situation had ever happened.

• the understanding that I gained from both managers – and from this experience – was that some people expect you to behave as they would in a given situation
• in effect, there are people who treat others as if they are replicas of themselves
• this is often referred to as controlling behaviour – using others to achieve their own ends, or at least trying to do so
• not only has this experience helped my understanding of human behaviour, but others as well when I share the experience without compromising the managers involved

Understanding human behaviours is a key factor in the concept and practice of trust, and I’ve written extensively on this in my 2008 book One Man Show – the smallest of small business – featuring my own and Shakespeare’s experiences as sole operators.

Trust is a critical issue in running your own business. Believe me, Shakespeare had a significantly more complex environment within which to operate 400 years ago that we have today!

Back to Chapter 5 of this e-book:

In the concluding comments of Chapter 5, you’ll find five underlying principles that have supported my continued learning and understanding. They are also relevant to risk management in any person’s spiritual journeying:

• to value my time – and to invest it wisely,
• to read the mind of the Universe – and learn more about Universal love,
• to be confident that I am ‘in place’ – with wonderful events and experiences moving toward me,
• that learning by observation is as valuable as learning by experience, and
• that life is just one continuous journey – with peaks and troughs, with laughter and tears… in constant one-ness with the collective consciousness, which is the manifestation of our patient Creator.

My focus now is on the underlying principle that learning by observation is as valuable as learning by experience. I’ll expand this principle to show its relevance to risk management – firstly in physical journeying, and then in any person’s spiritual journeying.

Risk can be defined as what you may lose less what you are willing to lose – which leads to the need to know the nature, level and extent of risk you are willing to accept. The nature and extent of risk can be quantified by the effect of a risk should it occur.

There is ongoing discussion as to there being only and always one cause to any problem: this implies that solving or addressing any problem must start by identifying and addressing that one cause. However, my experience shows that with risk, there may be one causal factor – but many contributing factors.

Let’s look at two examples by which we can learn about risk by observation:

• TV documentary Why the Titanic Sank, and
• 2008 BDO Nonprofit Fraud Survey.

TV documentary Why the Titanic Sank

In November of 2008, I arrived into my Belfast hotel in preparation for the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship annual conference. On the television that night was a documentary Why the Titanic Sank, and I watched with great interest – Belfast being the dockyard in which the Titanic was built and from which it was launched, sailing into its first and final journey.

We all know that the cause of the sinking of the Titanic and ensuing loss of several hundred lives was collision with an iceberg followed by a desperate and tragic mismanagement of lifeboat evacuation.

However, the documentary went on to present 14 contributing factors to this event and outcome. These contributing factors are presented in the order in which they were introduced and explained in the documentary:

1. substandard rivets
2. design of the ship
3. questionable quality of steel/iron
4. unusual iceberg behaviour
5. Marconi officers were only paid for transmitting passenger messages, therefore priority was given to these above the iceberg warnings received from other ships in the vicinity
6. lifeboats – 16 only had been installed instead of 49 that would be needed to evacuate the number of passengers and crew
7. no lifeboat drill had been initiated, therefore the crew were not trained on evacuation of this ship, which was on its maiden voyage
8. the Captain of a ship is the law aboard ship: but Captain Smith was not acting as ‘the law’
9. when instructing crew on shepherding passengers into the lifeboats, the Captain said ‘women and children first’ but the crew member heard ‘women and children only’
10. that the ship was unsinkable had been the accepted and continuing Company’s marketing message
11. the sister ship, Olympia, needed dock space in Belfast to repair the anchor that had been damaged on that ship’s earlier voyage when Captain Smith was in charge of the ship and voyage. This repair delayed the Titanic’s maiden voyage by a month, resulting in the Titanic’s First Officer being replaced by the Olympia’s First Officer – due to seniority
12. when leaving the ship prior to departing from Belfast, the Titanic’s First Officer accidentally packed the key to the cupboard in which the binoculars for the look-outs were stored: therefore the two look-out officers on iceberg-watch duty that night had no binoculars
13. there was no moon, therefore the wash at the base of the moving iceberg had no light by which to show movement to the Titanic’s look-out crew
14. Captain Smith was in a state of mental break-down – therefore no one person was in charge of the total evacuation procedure, and crew members had no-one they could go to for direction

Some observations:

One could observe that it was this collection of contributing factors which laid the foundation for the causal factor to sink the Titanic with the loss of several hundreds of lives.

One could also observe that if only one or a small number of these contributing factors had occurred, then this disaster may have been averted or minimised.

However, the key observation is that there is a difference between a causal factor and a contributing factor.

2008 BDO Nonprofit Fraud Survey

Note: The contents of this publication are not a substitute for specific advice and should not be relied upon as such. Accordingly, while every care has been taken in the presentation of the publication, no responsibility is accepted for persons acting on this information

Management of fraud within both the not-for-profit sector and organisations is only effective when the specifics of fraud are understood. In this section of the survey, respondents were asked to address the single largest fraud that has occurred in their organisation over the past two years.

Key findings include:

• the most common type of fraud reported by respondents was cash theft (33%);
• the typical fraudster is in his/her forties and is a paid non-accounting employee; only 8% of fraud was committed by unpaid volunteers;
• collusion was present in 25% of frauds reported with the typical colluder a female, over 50 years of age and a paid employee;
• the average value of the largest frauds in the not-for-profit sector is under $50,000 ($45,527);
• of all reported cases of fraud, 54% of respondents believed they discovered the full extent of the fraud;
• internal controls are the most successful method of discovering fraud, with 36% of frauds discovered this way;
• the average duration of a fraud was 14 months;
• respondents indicated that financial problems and pressures are the most common motivator for fraud;
• the majority of respondents did not report fraudulent matters to the Police;
• 20% of organisations did not terminate the employment of the person who committed the fraud.

By examining the specific fraud incidents of organisations we are able to provide the sector with information regarding what is the most likely type of fraud for their organisation size and type. Once again this enables organisations to remain on the front foot in the prevention of fraud.

There are some obvious correlations between the type of fraud and the category of the organisation that suffered the fraud. If an organisation handles a lot of cash then it is logical that cash theft would be the primary type of fraud occurring, in that the opportunity exists for those individuals who may be tempted.

While the information in this section can provide assistance to organisations in identifying key risk areas, it is also important not to categorise employees and volunteers and be blinded to other possibilities. The greatest weapon in the fight against fraud is prevention.

Learning by observation is indeed as valuable as learning by experience – and this applies to spiritual journeying as it does to physical journeying.

This method of learning can be as valuable as personal experience, and the gaining of formal qualifications. As well as your own, you can learn from the observations of others.

Observing others on their spiritual journeys can almost be a full-time activity. There is a wide range of options available, and many choose an option after observing the experiences of those who have already chosen a particular option.

We need to constantly remind ourselves that we may well be the subject of observation as we move through our spiritual journey. The manifestation of our spiritual journey is our physical journey – how we behave, make decisions or choices, respond to unexpected events, work our way through various risk experiences – and most importantly, how we integrate our observations and experiences into our knowledge and understanding.

Risk management means being able to see through the likelihood of risk to the potential and new level of understanding.

Risk management in spiritual journeying relies on having a toolbox of strategies based on personal observation and experience, together with knowledge and understanding of available tools and strategies.

It is necessary to understand and appreciate the practical implications, possibilities and potential of your spiritual journey.

In the next and final chapter of this e-book, I’ll re-cap on the tools and strategies offered in this and previous chapters – and encourage you to test and try tools that could be of interest and usefulness at the time of your reading: these are listed, in the sequence in which they are introduced, should you wish to review them in the meantime:

1. Retrospective Planning
2. Rennes paper
3. Journal keeping, including your dreams
4. Definitions
5. Choice-making
6. Entry/exit maturity
7. Multi-dimensional being
8. Enlightenment (art) and communication (science)
9. Experiencing the collective consciousness
10. Seven categories of growth and development
11. Deliberate practice
12. Principle of relativity
13. Genius
14. Adult learning principles
15. Innovation formula
16. Genius explained
17. Conscious/unconscious competence/incompetence
18. Risk management
19. Contributing and causal factors
20. Learning by observation