In “Wrangling the Grey Rhinos of ESG,” published February 4, 2020, Michele Wucker wrote for Citywire’s New Model Adviser magazine about how gray rhino theory applies to ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) investing paradigms. “Climate change and financial crisis are the kind of issues I was thinking of when I coined the term ‘grey rhino’ – a metaphor for big, obvious, probable risks that are charging straight at us. Everyone knows climate change and financial risk are out there, and it is easy to think that someone must be dealing with them. But paradoxically, their obviousness, size, and high probability are part of why we have let things get to such a dangerous place,” she wrote. Read the whole article HERE.
Michele was a guest on Dr Pele Raymond’s podcast, Profitable Happiness™ Episode 108, posted February 7, 2020. Listen on Apple Podcasts HERE on Stitcher HERE on Google Play HERE or on Spotify HERE.
Amy W. Harder interviewed Michele for her Axios article, “Coronavirus and climate change are obvious risks we ignore,” published March 9, 2020. Read the full article HERE.
“Are you using the wrong animal metaphor to describe the coronavirus crisis?” Fast Company’s Marcus Baram asks in “CORONAVIRUS CRISIS: Why the coronavirus crisis is a ‘gray rhino’ and not a ‘black swan’,” published on March 10, 2020. Read the whole article HERE.
Michele was interviewed in the Huffington Post “Why We Panic about the Coronavirus but not about the Climate Crisis,” published on March 13, 2020. “With climate change and the coronavirus, things seem to go slowly until all of a sudden they go fast. While they’re still going slowly is when you have a chance to stop them ― but, of course, people don’t usually act until they are about to get trampled,” she said. “The coronavirus can set a very real example for climate change: The sooner you act, the more chance you have of surviving. This is true for individuals, organizations and governments alike. Everyone needs to buy in. In both cases, individual people are more likely to act if they feel they can do something concrete that makes a difference, especially when it affects them personally. Read the full article HERE.
Michele Wucker wrote, “No, the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t an ‘unforeseen problem’” in The Washington Post March 17, 2020. “An obsession with the “unforeseeable” black swan metaphor has promoted a mentality that led us straight into the mess we’re in now: a sense of helplessness in the face of daunting threats and a sucker’s mentality that encourages people to keep throwing good money after bad,” she wrote. “And the facile willingness to see crises as black swans has provided policymakers cover for failing to act in the face of clear and present dangers from climate change to health care to economic insecurity. This accountability vacuum has pervaded U.S. policy on financial risk and on the pandemic.” Read the whole article HERE.
Michele Wucker wrote “Is Your Board Risk Ready?” for strategy+business March 11, 2020. “Your company’s board of directors is charged with reviewing all kinds of risks to the corporation. But how well prepared are its members to do so? How ready are directors to evaluate, communicate, and act on risks — and thus to better ensure that their companies are doing a good job? A great deal rides on the answers to these questions. Risk oversight of the boards themselves is what the Conference Board, a business membership and research organization, recently called the “next frontier in corporate governance.” Read the full article HERE.
New Model Adviser, a publication of CityWire in the United Kingdom, featured gray rhino theory on the cover of its March 2020 issue, entitled “The Signs Were There.” The issue features an interview with Michele Wucker. “COVID-19 was not unexpected. In fact, it is an example of a Gray Rhino event. The economist who coined the term tells editor William Robins why we should have seen the pandemic charging at us from a mile away.” Read the full article HERE.
The Economist‘s The World Ahead podcast interviewed Michele in its March 30, 2020 episode, entitled “Covid-19 and the Perils of Prediction,” asking her, “Is the covid-19 pandemic a grey rhino or a black swan?” Listen HERE or on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | TuneIn
Breaking the Fever Inaugural Episode
Preventable Surprises and Ethical Systems, Breaking the Fever, March 31, 2020
Covid-19 and the perils of prediction
Tom Standage, The Economist The World Ahead (podcast), March 31, 2020
“As the Covid-19 situation worsens, host Tom Standage explores what the pandemic reveals about the perils of prediction and what other future threats we might be overlooking. ”
War, What Is It Good For?
National Public Radio on the Media, April 3, 2020
Global Thinkers Forum in Conversation with Changemakers
Elisabeth Filippouli, Global Thinkers Forum and Athena40, 17 April 2020
The Truth About Facing A Challenge
Gary Sanchez, Beyond Your Why, May 1, 2020
Interview with Michele Wucker
David R. Koenig, DCRO Risk Governance, May 8, 2020
Jim Higgins of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel interviewed Gray Rhino & Company CEO Michele Wucker for the article “Coronavirus pandemic is the latest example of a ‘Gray Rhino’ that leaders ignored,” published May 6, 2020.
Michele Wucker and Gray Rhinos
Richard Cutcher and Julia Graham, Airmic Talks, May 10, 2020
Author Michele Wucker coined the term “grey rhino” for a highly probable, high-impact yet neglected threat. In this episode of the Crain’s Daily Gist podcast, she talks with host Amy Guth about how grey rhinos could shape economic recovery, the practical decisions we’re going to need to make over the coming weeks and months and what helps us to bounce back quickly. Listen HERE
Black Swans, Gray Rhinos, and Tigers..Oh My with Michele Wucker
RCM Alternatives, Derivatives Podcast, May 28, 2020
[Video Podcast]
“The financial world seems to have a fascination with zoomorphism – the attribution of animal names, emotions, or intentions to non- animal occurrences like market shocks. Black Swans are the famous one, but there’s also been White Moose and Gray Rhino added to the lexicon. This episode we sit down with the creator of the Gray Rhino risk metaphor, Michele Wucker, author of The Gray Rhino.”
Michele Wucker wrote “Why managing uncertainty is a key leadership skill” for strategy+business, published June 10, 2020. “As it brutally disrupts life and business as we know it, COVID-19 has brought into sharp relief a crucial business skill: the ability to navigate uncertainty,” she wrote. “That means knowing what you can control and what you cannot, aligning your company and employees with a shared purpose, holding to a clear vision of where you want the company to be, and trusting your team to help get there. Today’s economy is a real-life laboratory, an environment that supports the conclusion of a 2019 study of dozens of global leaders that identified the top leadership skill needed today as comfort with risk and with ambiguity — that is, the absence of certainty or clarity. Read the full article HERE.
A Conversation with Michele Wucker
Anne Janzer’s blog, June 12, 2020
Podcast and transcript
“Q: For people who aren’t familiar with it, we’ll talk about your book The Gray Rhino. The reason that it’s coming up today is because this pandemic is a wonderful example of a Gray Rhino: a risk that it’s obvious we’ve seen stampeding towards us—or some people have been seeing and shouting about—and yet we’ve done nothing until we’re on the horn of the rhino.”
Michele Wucker Breaks Down the Gray Rhino
Scott Kitun, WGN Radio/Technori
June 10, 2020
“When people think back to the 2008 financial crisis and other big events, they often jump to the moment’s inevitability that catastrophically impacts economies, businesses and lives in what has become known as black swan events. However, Wucker dissects just how much we overlook in terms of predicting global-scale events and phenomenon, with the answers often hidden in plain sight.”
Moneywise Guys
David Anderson and Sherod White, KERN Talk Radio/Moneywise Guys, June 30, 2020
David and Sherod talk with THE GRAY RHINO author Michele Wucker about why you should be wary of the surge in the markets, and how you can keep from getting trampled when the bull market turns to a bear.
Would You Know If a Gray Rhino Was Coming at You?
Jim Blasingame, The Small Business Advocate, June 16, 2020
Michele Wucker joins Jim Blasingame to reveal the concept of a metaphorical gray rhino, which is a challenge on your horizon that you should be – have been – able to anticipate and deal with before it takes – took – you down.
Michele Wucker wrote Lessons from COVID-19 about communicating risk for strategy+business magazine September 15, 2020. “COVID-19 messaging provides an object lesson in how — and how not — to communicate in a way that gets people to recognize the nature of a threat and to act in ways that reduce risks to themselves and others,” she wrote. READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.
In a wide-ranging conversation, Michele Wucker spoke with the inimitable Aidan McCullen for Episode 242 of the popular Innovation Show podcast, posted October 8, 2020. Listen via your favorite podcast channel:
Web https://bit.ly/2FwsOJw
Soundcloud https://lnkd.in/gBbTTuF
Spotify https://spoti.fi/2rXnAF4
iTunes https://apple.co/2gFvFbO
Tunein https://bit.ly/2rRwDad
iHeart https://bit.ly/2E4fhfl
Or watch below:
The Economist invited Michele to contribute to its annual The World Ahead/The World in 2021 issue. The resulting article, Was the pandemic a gray rhino or a black swan?, was published November 17, 2020. “Facing the daunting challenges ahead will require long-term thinking, a greater emphasis on the real economy rather than stockmarket performance and, above all, a commitment to hold ourselves and our leaders accountable,” she wrote. The article puts into context the gray rhinos ahead of us in 2021: climate change, financial fragilities, and inequality that has made the rich even richer while front-line essential workers struggle. Read the full article HERE.
Hugo Alconada Mon interviewed Michele in La Nación (Argentina) in an article entitled “Coronavirus. Michele Wucker: “El Covid-19 fue como una bestia inminente, a la carga y enojada” and published November 18, 2020. The interview covered the pandemic, gray rhino theory, the gray rhinos the pandemic has stirred up, leadership, and a bonus: books and binge-watching recommendations.
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- Conversation with Peter Atwater of THE CONFIDENCE MAP - November 2, 2023
- In Conversation with Hao Hong - October 17, 2023
