Featured Article: Are You Running a Risk Meeting or a Risk Workshop?
New Article: The Toilet Paper Rule - Why Small Problems Become Big Failures
Resource Article: Risk Identification Techniques and How to Brainstorm Well
Live Event (4/29): Are Risk Workshops the Missing Piece to Your Risk Management Puzzle?
PM Best Practice: Interview Your Team's Pessimist
Tuesday Brief: Risk management is on the agenda this week, and we're coming at it from every angle. Russell Parker makes his MPUG debut with a sharp distinction between the risk meeting most teams actually run and the risk workshop they think they're running. Ronald B. Smith brings some levity (and real wisdom) to the same theme with an unlikely metaphor. Mike Clayton rounds it out with the practical techniques you'll want in your back pocket when it's your turn to run the room.
Featured Article:Are You Running a Risk Meeting or a Risk Workshop?
Russell Parker opens his first MPUG article with a question most PMs don't stop to ask. A meeting is a conversation. A workshop is a process. The difference shows up in the output, and most teams are producing the wrong one.
If this question catches you off guard, Russell takes it even deeper in Wednesday's live session.
Featured Article: The Toilet Paper Rule - Why Small Problems Become Big Failures
Yes, really. Ronald B. Smith uses the humble bathroom staple to unpack six project management truths, and somehow it works. The metaphor is playful. The lessons underneath it are anything but.
Resource Article: Risk Identification Techniques and How to Brainstorm Well
Once you know you should be running real risk workshops, the next question is what to actually do inside one. Mike Clayton walks through the techniques that make the time count: his SPECTRES framework for surfacing risks by category, brainwriting as an upgrade to standard brainstorming for larger groups, and the pre-mortem exercise that sidesteps the biggest blind spot most teams share.
Live Event (4/29): Are Risk Workshops the Missing Piece to Your Risk Management Puzzle?
Russell Parker, PMP, PMI-RMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, LSSBB, returns to the topic he introduced in his article and takes it deeper. Where the article draws the line between meetings and workshops, this session gives you the operational playbook: when to run them, how often, and who belongs in the room.
What You'll Learn:
The role of the risk workshop within the project management lifecycle
When and how often to run risk workshops across a project's duration
Who to invite to ensure the right stakeholder participation at every level
A practical framework you can apply to your current or next project
📅 Wednesday, April 29, 2026 🕛 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET 📍 Live on Zoom 🏅 1 PDU (Ways of Working)
MPUG hosts live events with leading experts on Wednesdays from 12:00pm - 1:00pm ET! MPUG members get access to live events where you get direct access to industry leaders, actionable insights, hands-on training, and opportunities to earn PDUs.
4/29/2026: Are Risk Workshops the Missing Piece to Your Risk Management Puzzle? | Learn More + Register Here
Every team has one. The person who instinctively sees what could go wrong, who raises the uncomfortable question, who can feel like a drag on momentum. Most PMs try to manage that voice down. Try the opposite. Pull them aside before your next risk workshop and ask them to walk you through everything they're worried about. Write it all down. You don't have to act on every concern, but you'll almost certainly surface risks nobody else in the room would have named.
