What Derren Brown, the Nuremburg trials and Waco have to teach us about Risk Management

OK, so Derren Brown is a bit weird, but, I do find the “psychological illusions” he creates absolutely compelling, particularly when “ordinary people” are persuaded to behave in extraordinary ways.  For those not familiar with the work of Derren Brown (where have you been for the last 5 years) this includes such must see TV as “The Heist”.  In The Heist Derren works with a group of people who he appears to psychologically “re-programme” to such a level that they are actually prepared to hold-up a security van that they believe to be real.  Now to what extent the “re-programming” is real or illusory we will never know, however, what all of us are prepared to accept and what was illustrated time and time again (whether it be evidence from the Nuremburg trials, or the cults at Jonestown or Waco) is that ordinary people, under the right conditions, are prepared to do crazy and immoral things.

Given that this is a well known psychological contention what I find fascinating is how little, given the recent spate of disasters (economic and otherwise) we are being faced with, is being written about the cultures of our organisations.  We seem to be happy to believe that a few “rogue traders” or “maverick operators” are responsible for the economic and environmental woes we face, not the prevailing cultures.   Of course, it was a shock to the UK public that the evil monsters of Nuremburg actually turned out, more often than not, to be relatively sane (if desensitized), middle class people who were simply following orders.  In other words we need to be far more aware of the capability of the organisational culture to desensitize normal people.

So, as the politicians and industry regulators (on our behalf) attempt to ensure that our organisations are behaving in a probate manner my suggestion is that they concentrate less on trying to prevent the actions of mavericks and more on trying to ensure that the prevailing organisational cultures are not desensitizing “ordinary” people to the point where taking immoral actions seems normal.    This is certainly the approach our people and conduct risk teams are taking at Capgemini and it seems to be paying off.  So, if you’d like to know more about our innovative approach please do get in touch.