by Michael Arbow, MBA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
A few months ago, I wrote a blog about the closing of toboggan hills as a way that towns in the US were attempting to reduce their risk exposure. Well it seems that some government officials in New York state want to reduce their risk exposure in the summer as well. The target this time is summer day camp games such as Red Rover (a game I played endlessly growing up in Toronto), kickball and of course the most dangerous – tag. Unlike the toboggan ban, cooler (?) heads have prevailed and New York state’s children will still be allowed to get fit, learn strategy and share laughs while playing the aforementioned summer games.
Perhaps what the State Sen. Patricia Ritchie of Watertown may have unconsciously realized is a phenomenon in risk management we call risk homeostasis: that is, by reducing risk you actually increase risk taking behavior. In this case, with the opportunity to playing tag removed from day camp activities what activity would replace it and could it have been even more risky. Of course the other problem Sen. Ritchie may have seen is that the cost of reducing playground risk may have been greater than the benefits of happy, out of breath children.
So the question is, is your organization a victim of risk homeostasis? In other words have you reduced risk to such a high level of confidence that you are now blind to the new risks that that feeling of safety introduces?
For more on risk in the playground click on the link to the NBC story:
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