Residual Risk

Often when we hire the services of an activity in the natural environment, we look for information among these companies or activities that are advertised as adventure, risk sports, etc … but do these words really define what we are looking for? Do we really want an activity in which we will be at risk, or an activity whose beginning is known but not its outcome?

Perhaps this way of describing an activity or the services that a company or a sports technician is going to provide us in the natural environment totally contradicts the real functions that it has to fulfill.

Contrary to what is almost always stated, among companies and industry professionals, when one wishes to carry out such an activity, what he is looking for is a professional who will lead us to the activity giving him security. which he possibly would not have if he ventured to perform it alone or in the company of a person without proper training. No one wants to expose themselves to risky situations or venture into something without knowing for sure that it is going to end in good port.

We may abuse these terms inappropriately, trying to use them as a hook, to get people to try this or that activity or sport. Offering it as the great adventure with the maximum risk. And it is possibly true that these concepts can be very attractive, because it is intuited that as in the movies, in the end you will always be happy!

One knows that these words are actually used to define more, the experience you will feel, these unknown and uncontrollable emotions that will put your senses in maxims that you never thought they could reach, but yes, knowing that your side you have a professional who is managing all this, with the certainty that in the end will be the hundreds of likes you get on social media when you put on them the photos of your magnificent adventure!

However, as in any other activity in life, no matter how well managed this risk to which we are exposed during the activity, it will always be out of the control of professionals situations that can not be anticipated . Neither with the best prevention plan, nor with the most scrupulous safety protocol, nor with the best experience that the technician can have, there will always be situations of risk that escape our control. We call this fact Residual Risk !!

While this risk cannot be left to zero, it can be brought to a minimum. There are two ways to manage risk in an activity. One is the passive and previous management that we will carry out before the activity and the other, the one that we will carry out actively during this one.

To know perfectly the activity we will carry out, the place, its technical and physical difficulties, to adapt the facilities to facilitate our work and the progression of the clients, to plan which method of driving we will use in each point of the itinerary or the activity, look at weather forecasts, etc … and above all, have enough information from our customers to be able to choose the right type of activity. For the latter, it is necessary to know how to steal information from our clients, either through a previous form that you will have to fill in or ask everything we consider appropriate when you hire the activity, and that will provide us with the necessary information to be able to assess what type of activity can fit your profile.

In this way, active safety must be reduced to executing all the preparation we have carried out previously, anticipating everything that may trigger an anticipated risk. In this part, it is clear that experience will help us make the necessary decisions in due course. We must know how to manage the times and give the instructions in such a way that they are necessary and at the time when the client was able to assimilate them. Giving all the information and instructions at the beginning of the activity is not usually effective, and could result in a situation of risk to act, assuming that we have already given the indications and that he has assimilated them previously.

In short, risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing and responding to risk factors throughout the life of a project and for the benefit of its objectives. Proper risk management involves controlling for possible future events. In addition, it is proactive, rather than reactive.