Every day we avoid risky situations and defy Murphy’s Law in the process. Because that means that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, or someone will choose the worst solution. If we add Finagle’s law to this, then this always happens exactly when the timing is most inopportune. But what does Murphy’s Law mean for everyday business and what does that have to do with risk management? We explain this to you in this article with typical examples from our practical experience!
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
What does Murphy’s law say exactly?
In essence, Murphy’s Law, along with Finagle’s Law, is the foundation of all risk management and the insurance industry. After all, something can always happen and Only with protection can we avoid risks that occur or reduce the amount of damage. These are several statements or laws that everyone can probably understand in their area.
But let’s just take the statements of the engineer Edward A. Murphy and break them down into the various components of the well-known Murphy’s law:
If there are multiple ways to do something and one of them can go wrong, someone will choose that option.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Murphy’s Law in the Corporate Environment
A classic example is the urgent order from a difficult customer: the ordered parts have finally arrived and when the goods are received it is apparent that the critically necessary element has been damaged in transit. The order is late, the customer is furious and a contractual penalty is due.
Typically, the statement of Murphy’s law also applies to technology: You are writing a document, preparing the statement or writing a job reference – the document freezes just when you wanted to save it temporarily. Of course, thanks to cloud solutions and more, there are good security measures, but sometimes a careless click is still the death knell for the previous efforts. Finagle knows: This happens just when the document should have been ready yesterday.
In a nutshell: the greater the rush and the more stupid the result, the more often exactly this happens. In all other cases, as mentioned at the beginning, we navigate more or less elegantly around the risks and nothing happens.
Murphy’s law explained in the video
We’ve all had those dodgy situations where we want to get our brains out. But how often do we go one step further and look at what the risk analysis could look like? I take a closer look – in this video:
What does Murphy’s law do for risk management?
In lean management we like to work with the term Poka Yoke (no errors possible, resp. foolproof), including not only connectors that can only be plugged together in one way, but also precise instructions from process management. Because if the risk is reduced, the probability of occurrence decreases and the extent of the damage is less likely to have an impact. In addition, this attitude relieves every single employee. After all, the question of several options does not arise, but there is a standard solution for error-prone processes.
Murphy’s Law does not focus on “evil fate”, but above all on the human factor. We all know the trainees and also long-term employees who sometimes have a stumbling block in front of their heads and build nonsense. At best, this is an anecdote for upcoming company parties, at worst, there is a lot of damage to the team, to the customer or to the company.
Why is there Murphy’s Law?
If we look at the historical origin of the statement, there were exactly two ways to do something. The right kind and the wrong kind – one employee decided on the wrong one, Murphy’s test yielded no results. “If there are multiple ways to do something and one of them can go wrong, someone will choose that option.” We all know the resonating resignation of the sentence:
- Die extra orderbecause someone didn’t pay attention to the completeness beforehand.
- One second approachbecause the part didn’t fit.
- The well-intentioned independent actionwhich means a lot of extra work because the overall construct no longer works.
- The USB stick with the viruswhich spreads further via the company network.
The human component in Murphy’s law is mostly a mixture of too little knowledge, too much self-confidence or simply stress and time pressure. Unfortunately, this does not change the risk that has occurred with the amount of damage. Therefore our most important tip is:
Risk management in operation against consequences of Murphy’s Law
The first step in the risk management process is successful when entrepreneurs and executives become aware of the extent of damage that individual errors can have: develop risk awareness.
This does not mean specifying or checking every action, but rather observing sources of risk in general and among employees with open eyes and working with FMEA, for example. The right corporate culture makes it possible to assess employees better and to provide appropriate support even in difficult situations. Especially on construction sites, we often see employees doing without relevant protective equipment, although the respective risk assessment clearly lists the necessary protection. Many smaller companies also postpone this documentation because they don’t have the time. In an emergency, however, there is a risk of immense personal and legal consequences.
By the way, force majeure is rarely associated with Murphy’s law, unless you decided to cancel elementary insurance the day before the natural disaster. Then the human factor is decisive again.
Because of this: Use Murphy’s law, play through scenarios and also include near misses and team mishaps in your consideration. Do not limit your risk management to the typical insurance issues, but pay attention to the everyday processes in your company. If that’s difficult, creativity methods can help to come up with the worst variants and see if there can be a probability of them.
Find the worst case using Murphy’s law
We usually use Murphy’s Law and Finagle’s Law when we’re locked out without a cell phone in our pocket, the sandwich falls on the wrong side or the car is on strike right before the important appointment. But what are your Murphy scenarios in operation: The wrong handle on the saw? The spilled coffee over the controller? The incorrectly forwarded customer email?
Go through the typical processes that you and your employees know and consider what can go wrong. What would be the worst possible damage then? Loss of customers, financial losses, bankruptcy, injuries, deaths? Which link is decisive here and which of the available options was chosen by a person? If you have built up your risk awareness here, let’s see you right away in the first step of the risk management process, the risk analysis!
With best regards
Yours, Axel Schroeder
Murphys Gesetz Mind Map
It is often not so easy to grasp the small everyday risks that can lead to overtime, stress and annoyance. That is why we have created the Murphys Law Mind Map for you and your company as an introduction to risk awareness. You can use it to go through risks by area.
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