On June 15, 2021, Michele Wucker MIA ’93 joined SIPA for a book talk to discuss You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World, which offers a framework for understanding and re-shaping our relationship with risk and uncertainty to live more productive and successful lives.
More about Michele’s book:
What drives a sixty-four-year-old woman to hurl herself over Niagara Falls in a barrel? Why are corporate boards paying more attention to risky personal behavior by CEOs? Why are some countries quicker than others to recognize—and manage—risks like pandemics, technological change, and the climate crisis?
The answers to these questions define each person, organization, and society as distinctively as a fingerprint. Understanding the often-surprising origins of these risk fingerprints can open your eyes, inspire new habits, catalyze innovation and creativity, improve teamwork, and provide a beacon in a world that suddenly seems more uncertain than ever.
Drawing on compelling stories from risk takers around the world and weaving in economics and social psychology, You Are What You Risk bridges the divide between professional and lay risk conversations. Wucker challenges stereotypes about risk attitudes, shows how the new science of “risk personality” is re-shaping business and finance, and reveals how embracing risk empathy can resolve conflicts. She shares insights, practical tools, and proven strategies that will help you to make better choices, both big and small. She also demonstrates the feedback loop between policy, organizational, and personal risk choices.
The book is a sequel to the author’s 2016 best-seller, The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore, which has shaped financial risk, security, and business continuity policies and strategies around the world, particularly in China. It has been widely cited as emblematic of the unheeded warnings that led to the Covid-19 pandemic and inspired a lyric in the hit single “Blue & Grey” by the global mega-group BTS about depression.
