9 | |MARCH - APRIL 2026As humans, we all manage risks on an ongoing basis. When it comes to managing risk for your organization, taking a proactive, systematic, and holistic approach will help you minimize and reduce risk.An ISO-based system will allow your organization to identify all risks but treat them with different urgency. For example, my company AVANGRID recently rolled out the Essential Controls standard, which focuses on our organization's top eight risks and the systematic approach we can take to minimize and/or eliminate risk based on severity and probability. In addition, we continue to leverage technology in the areas of information management systems and training to have better controls in place to develop our people and improve our overarching system. I'm proud that in 2016, AVANGRID was one of the first energy companies in the U.S. to have a certified Management System in OHSAS 18001 (now ISO 45001), the most rigorous workplace safety standards in the world. We use "The Wheel", seven elements of our management system, to give a visual representation of our system. If one part of the wheel falls off, it's unable to operate. This wheel is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act model, which urges organizations to have a culture of continual improvement. We have also invested in the development, implementation, and certification of global standards aimed at identifying, reducing, and managing safety risks in the workplace and environmental risks in the communities where we operate. Ultimately, to have a successful system in place, building it is not enough. You must also incorporate it into the company culture. At AVANGRID, we have adopted "Human and Organizational Performance ­ The New View of Safety" in the last several years. This has moved our company culture toward a "learn and improve" mindset. This way, the system is built for the employees with their input, and they can voice their opinions in a psychologically safe environment. This is a win for the organization and our employees because psychological safety results in physical safety. Safety is not defined by the absence of accidents, but by the presence of capacity (as said by Conklin).As humans, we all manage risks on an ongoing basis. When it comes to managing risk for your organization, taking a proactive, systematic, and holistic approach will help you minimize and reduce risk. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "It's not the destination; it's the journey." An organization with a culture that empowers its workforce to continually improve will do a much better job of keeping its workers safe and protecting the environment for future generations.
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