Rethink Risk with Denis Fischbacher Smith: Vulnerabilities, Threats and Organisational Failure

Most organisations misuse the word risk, and the consequences can be severe.

In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones sits down with Professor Denis Fischbacher Smith, Professor of Risk and Resilience at the University of Glasgow, to unpack decades of insight from analysing system failures, organisational breakdowns and multi fatality accidents.

Denis explains why humans will never be perfectly rational, why managers exist to deal with uncertainty, and why risk frameworks often hide the very vulnerabilities leaders need to confront. From rule violations to bureaucracy, informal networks, degraded controls and the myths that mislead executives, this is a deep, practical exploration of organisational reality.

🔍 In this episode:

• Why rationality is a false construct
• Human behaviour, bounded perspective and mental models
• Why managers exist to manage uncertainty
• The misuse of risk in organisations
• Understanding threats, vulnerabilities and degraded controls
• What rule violations really tell you
• The myth of the all knowing board
• How bureaucracy distorts work and decision making
• Listening, engagement and the value of middle management
• Learning from failures and why “it never happened before” is not a strategy
• Strategic thinking in complex and uncertain environments

🎧 Keywords: Risk, Resilience, Organisational Failure, Decision Making, Vulnerabilities, Threats, Human Factors, Systems Thinking, Leadership, Safety, Complexity, Strategy

📘 Connect with Denis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denis-fischbacher-smith-1aa6453/
📬 Connect with Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones
🌐 Full episodes: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategy-meets-reality