In public safety, problems come at us in all directions, too often leading to tragedy. The concepts of the Black Swan and the Grey Rhino help us to differentiate between these problems. Black Swans are the “unknown unknowns” that no one sees coming. Grey Rhinos are massive, obvious problems that we fail to acknowledge. As the title of this workshop points out, one leader’s Black Swan can easily be another leader’s Grey Rhino. In this session, Mr. Graham explains these concepts in more detail and shows how they relate to the basic concepts of risk management. Attendees explore how events that “sneak up on organizations” and cause tremendous problems have often been experienced by other similarly situated organizations. Mr. Graham provides strategies on how to effectively capture and share lessons learned from close calls and tragedies, turning Black Swans into Grey Rhinos that are not only visible, but also stoppable.
