I was hanging off the side of a cliff recently. Literally! 70 meters up (about 230 feet). Yes, that is me in the picture above, at the Palissades du Charlevoix adventure park in Quebec. Rather stressful, but also really exhilarating, as I was harnessed in and had a guide who had done a significant amount of rappelling in the past. And those, I think, are the keys to being comfortable with risk. Learn, practice, have a safety line and get good advice and support.
If you’re going to change your volunteer program in a way that seems a bit risky, I encourage you to have the following things in place before you start. It will make things much less stressful, and ensure that the change will have a higher likelihood of success.
Learn all you can.
Although I had never done any rappelling before, I listened very carefully to the instructions of the guide before I went over the edge. I also let other people go first, and watched them closely.
Before you take your risk, learn as much as you can about what’s involved. Chances are, you won’t be the first person to have tried it or something like it. Learn from both the successes and failures of other people. Depending on the level of risk, reach out directly and talk to people who have done it. What worked, what didn’t, what would they do differently next time? Would they ever do it again? If not, why not? Take everything you find out and relate it back to your plans. What, if anything, should you change? Even if some of the advice doesn’t have a direct bearing on your project, tuck it away in your mind; you never know when it will come in handy.
Practice.
There is a very specific maneuver that is used (at least for beginners!) that lowers a rappeler down the rope in a controlled and safe manner. I practiced that maneuver on a very short drop so I knew how it worked, and also what to do if anything went wrong.
While you can’t actually practice your change in real life, you can run through scenarios in your mind. Go through each stage step by step in your head so you’re comfortable with the process. Think about potential challenges. If X happened, how would you react? What would the result be on the program and the different stakeholders? Go through super successful scenarios, and scenarios where everything you can think of goes wrong.
Set up a safety line.
In addition to listening to instructions and practicing, I was set up with layers of redundancy in terms of safety equipment. If one part of my equipment failed, there was something else to take it’s place.
After you’ve gone through the scenarios above, come up with contingency plans for each. Have your basic Plan A, but also have a Plan B, Plan C and even more plans that you can switch to if something goes sideways. And it will! Something always goes wrong when you’re working on a project. Fortunately, nothing failed during my descent, but I felt a lot safer knowing that there were options if something did. Set up your options!
Don’t do it alone!
There is no way on earth that I would have gone rappelling without a guide. No matter how well I had studied, how much I’d practiced or how much safety gear I had. Knowing that there was someone there who could help me if, for example, I froze halfway down or my equipment jammed made it possible for me to take that kind of risk.
I recommend you do the same. Get a mentor. Ask someone who has done similar things in the past to guide you through the process. Someone who can encourage and advise you when things get hard or when challenges arise. They may not be able to actually carry you through it, but they can help you loosen snags or remind you that you’re almost through and to stay strong.
It’s hard to get comfortable with risk.
It’s scary. There’s a lot on the line. Not only for you but also for your organisation and the cause that you serve. That’s the reason that social impact organisations tend to be risk-adverse. But not taking risks can mean that the program stagnates, and sometimes keeping with the status quo ends up being riskier in the long run.
Not everyone is comfortable hanging off the edge of a cliff. But even if you’re not, learning about the risk you’re taking, thinking through scenarios and coming up with contingency plans, and finding a mentor to help you through it will make it easier. You may never become fully comfortable with risk, but you can make it a lot less stressful.
Good luck!
