Establishing Order Out of Chaos
“The frontiers of the kingdom of God never advanced by men and women of caution.”
-The wife of Archbishop Mowll, Africa, quoted in Facing Danger, 2nd Ed, p. 149
At this link, please find a full excel spread sheet that will guide you through the entire risk assessment and management process. It will walk you through brainstorming your risks, identifying resources to steward in risk, provide the place to assign risk scores, work out the bow tie (causes and consequences), and graph your risks using the 4 quadrants of frequency, severity, geographic proximity, and demographic proximity. When you plug in the data, it will create the graph for you!
This excel spread sheet next provides the form to develop your mitigation strategies and what endurance strategies you want to apply to endure through your risks and mitigation procedures. Feel free to download and customize to make it work for your situation. The version provided on this blog post is not ours, but one a partner created and gave us permission to share.
You can use this excel spread sheet, but you can also draw these out on a paper napkin if you don’t have continual access to stable internet.
There are almost half a million global workers focused on advancing the Gospel globally, 70% of whom are from the Global South. This means they often don't have the financial resources to buy the Risk Assessment software sold by security firms.
In our experience in Afghanistan and knowing the software available to global workers, it wasn't agile enough, took too long and had too much of a learning curve and was expensive. Neal used one of the top risk assessment software programs sold by an American security firm, and eventually stopped using it and created his own tools utilizing a simple Microsoft Excel spread sheet.
In all my research on risk, the tools he has come up with and explained in my book, Facing Danger, 2nd Edition as well as the 2-day RAM Training we provide, these tools are solid, useable, and doable by anyone, even on a paper napkin at your local coffee shop. A partner organization we have trained created their own version of our excel spread sheet which seems much better and more helpful.
We've had folks take our training who have had all the Christian security training out there as well as what is offered by the US Government, and the response we always get is, "Wow, your RAM tools are comprehensive AND doable."
Responsible risk assessment in witness risk should be accessible to all Christ-followers, including a "housewife" who needs to assess her own risks in the high risk area she may be serving in.
There are 5 characteristics that any Risk Assessment tool should have:
Low Cost - Risk Assessment and Mitigation tools should be available to all and not just those with the finances to purchase them. In this case, we've made our tools freely available and can be downloaded at any time from the Risk Resource page.
Agile - Because the Risk Environment is so fluid and can change from minute to minute. risk analysis needs to be done rapidly. The tools should not be so cumbersome that people don't want to do it. The steps are also explained in the RAM Action Guide (free download).
Comprehensive - The Risk Assessment tools need to assess all factors on a likelihood scale. In the case of what we advocate for, the likelihood of Frequency, Severity, Geographic Proximity, and Demographic Proximity are assessed.
Transferable - The tools can be easily passed on to locals and easily trained. We are freely sharing these tools, because our heart is to strengthen all of God's servants around the world.
Doable - As shown in the picture above, once you know the tools, you can do them on a paper napkin even! Simple drawings for complex problems often provide the clarity a global worker in risk situations need.
This drawing is from a 2.5 hour meeting we had with a veteran couple experiencing an active death threat. They had already talked with professional Christian security analysts, but were still unclear.
The RAM steps we teach often provide the path through confusing decision making and equip Christ followers with the discerning questions they need to get answers from the Lord and themselves from. It also helps to direct attention to which information needs to be given more weight, so it equips in information analysis (equals intelligence).
The American Security Firms so often advising missionaries and mission agencies are often far too conservative. We are not trying to keep people safe.
Let me say that again.
We are not trying to keep people safe from danger.
We are trying to help people know how to navigate danger for the sake of the Gospel and in their calling. To access the free Risk Assessment and Management excel worksheet that does the graphing for you and walks you through the process step by step, go to this link here. Feel free to download and customize to make it work for your situation.
Feel free to contact me if you would like to have more 1:1 coaching on using these tools.
(While my coaching is "free" to global workers/Christ-followers, it is not "free." Our coaching and consulting fees are $200/hour, but these are paid for through donations from partners who desire to see global workers in dangerous areas and among unreached people groups be resourced and enabled to be resilient and thrive).
