Leading in a “Risk Society”

In the 1980s, sociologist Ulrich Beck’s “Risk Society” provided a blueprint of the world that's burning my coaching clients out. His book is still relevant for leaders today.

Initially, “Risk Society” struggled to find a publisher. Beck said critics dismissed him as just another anxious German. But then Chernobyl happened. Risk was front and center of the leadership conversation—and it’s been there ever since.

A risk, Beck writes, isn’t a full-blown crisis with sirens blaring. It’s simply a possibility something could go wrong (or right) that’s strong enough to influence how we live and act.

Risk is quiet, invisible. It’s also why we buy insurance, put on sunscreen, and have sewers. Whether we choose to avoid or approach them, we decide the course of our lives based on the risks we think most important.

Risk has been a constant throughout human history. But Beck believed risk today is fundamentally different for four reasons.

First, the risks that most scare us—like nuclear war, failing schools, political dysfunction, chronic un- or underemployment, pollution, or climate change—are all caused by people. Which means we’re not just part of the problem. We are the problem.

Second, we’re getting progressively better at noticing these risks. Which means the list of global, life-threatening, self-inflicted perils is ever-increasing and increasingly unmanageable.

Third, those risks are often unintended byproducts of trying to get something else we need. Which means reducing these risks often entails trade-offs that make someone (typically someone on the margins) suffer. Which means risk isn’t just an individual choice of recycling more or putting on sunscreen. It’s an issue of social, political, economic, and religious leadership.

Fourth, the institutions we have—political, educational, economic, social, religious—aren’t built to handle the load. Which means they fail. Which means there’s nothing to contain the risk, forcing people to fend for themselves and lash out at each other in increasingly aggressive and violent ways.

The result is what Beck called a “reflexive” society, a society based not on “reflection” but on “reflex.”

Every move we make feels like touching a hot stove. We spend our lives recoiling from everything, pushing us deeper into the holes we’ve already dug.

The result is a leadership environment that’s as painful as it is stressful. And navigating it requires skills most of us don’t have. To lead in this new world, we need new skills to help us move from a reflexive mindset to a reflective one.

My coaching can help you make that shift. Want to learn more? Book your free Discovery Session here.