Introduction: When Common Sense Gets Overruled
Corporate Rules Gone Wrong
In The Ministry of Common Sense, Martin Lindstrom tells the story of a bank that banned USB sticks for security reasons. The workaround? Employees were forced to print documents, walk to another computer, scan them, and send them by email. No one questioned it—because questioning processes and metrics were more dangerous than wasting hours of time. This isn’t an isolated case. It’s a symptom of something much deeper: when logic gives way to blind compliance, risk thrives in silence.
The Cost of Too Much Structure
Many large organisations are built on a foundation of process, control, and key performance indicators (KPIs). These structures aim to reduce uncertainty, promote accountability, and ensure efficiency. But when they become too rigid or disconnected from reality, they do the opposite. Processes multiply, but results stagnate. Teams become experts at navigating internal bureaucracy rather than solving real problems. Reporting is optimised, but truth is obscured. In the name of structure, functionality suffers.
How Common-Sense Links to Risk Culture
This disconnect is not just a cultural inconvenience—it’s a risk. When employees can’t speak up, or when internal politics override honesty, organisations become blind to their own vulnerabilities. Operational risks go unnoticed. Reputation threats simmer under the surface. Compliance issues escalate in silence. The appearance of order conceals the erosion of judgment.
Why Common-Sense Matters in Risk Management
Common sense is often dismissed as too subjective or too informal. But in reality, it’s a frontline defence. It questions absurdity, highlights contradictions, and restores a human lens to corporate life. When common sense is overruled by procedure, organisations lose their agility and their resilience. And that’s when risk takes root—not in chaos, but in compliance without reflection.
The Illusion of Control: When KPIs Replace Thinking
The Problem with Siloed Metrics
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were designed to measure progress and support decision-making. But when KPIs become the end goal instead of a tool, they lose their meaning—and their value. In many organisations, performance is defined by narrow metrics that only reflect a piece of reality. Teams work in silos, optimising for numbers that may look good on paper but say little about real impact.
Success Theatre and the KPI Game
This often creates what’s known as “success theatre.” Reports look green, dashboards show 100%, and executives celebrate milestones—while the underlying risks go unnoticed or unspoken. People learn how to game the system, tweak definitions, or shift timelines just to hit targets. The focus shifts from solving problems to looking good. And the more pressure there is to meet KPIs, the greater the temptation to manipulate them.
When KPIs Hide the Real Risks
The real danger is that these metrics create a false sense of security. Leaders believe the business is healthy because the numbers say so. But reality doesn’t always align with performance indicators. A team may meet every single KPI while ignoring growing compliance gaps, customer complaints, or toxic work culture. In one example, a financial department achieved all its quarterly goals, yet it bypassed key risk controls to speed up reporting—leading to an audit failure months later.
Metrics Must Serve Judgment, Not Replace It
When KPIs replace thinking, organisations lose their ability to detect early warning signs. Risk becomes invisible behind polished dashboards. And instead of driving improvement, metrics become masks—hiding the truth and amplifying exposure.
The Role of Common Sense in Risk Culture
What Does “Common Sense” Mean in a Corporate Setting?
In a structured organisation, “common sense” often gets confused with informality or subjectivity. But it’s neither. It’s the ability to pause, reflect, and ask: Does this make sense in the real world? Common sense is situational awareness, practical judgment, and the courage to challenge the absurd—even when it’s backed by a process. It’s the missing link between policy and purpose.
When organisations scale, they create layers of rules to manage complexity. But when those layers become too thick, employees stop thinking critically. They follow the procedure—even if it leads to waste, inefficiency, or risk. That’s when common sense must be reintroduced as a vital element of risk culture.
Prioritising Judgment Over Metrics
Risk-aware organisations empower people to think—not just to comply. This means encouraging initiative over robotic behaviour. Not every risk is captured by a dashboard. Sometimes, it’s a feeling in the room, a pattern noticed by a junior staff member, or a front-line decision that prevents a major incident.
When KPIs dominate, people may hesitate to speak up if something “feels off” but doesn’t show up in a report. Encouraging human judgment means giving employees permission—and support—to act when they see something wrong, even if it’s outside the scope of their metrics.
Creating Safe Spaces for Dissent and Feedback
A healthy risk culture thrives on transparency. That means creating space for people to question decisions, flag problems, and offer honest feedback—without fear. If employees feel punished for challenging the status quo, they’ll stop doing it. And that’s when risks go unnoticed.
Building feedback loops across levels and departments reduces blind spots. It allows real-world experience to inform risk strategies. And it ensures that risk isn’t just a top-down policy—it’s a shared responsibility shaped by reality and common sense.
Practical Actions for Risk-Aware Organisations
Align KPIs with Real Risk Outcomes
Many organisations track efficiency, speed, and output—but forget to measure what truly matters: resilience, integrity, and risk exposure. KPIs must reflect real-world impacts, not just internal performance targets. For example, instead of only tracking how fast a process is completed, include a metric for how often issues are identified and resolved early. Aligning KPIs with risk outcomes ensures teams aren’t rewarded for cutting corners or ignoring red flags.
Reward Transparency—Even When It’s Uncomfortable
Transparency should be an asset, not a liability. Organisations often say they value openness, but punish those who bring up inconvenient truths. This creates a culture of silence and delay. If teams see that raising concerns is encouraged—and rewarded—they’ll be more likely to surface critical information before it becomes a crisis. Recognition programs, leadership visibility, and storytelling around “good catches” help normalise speaking up.
Use Audits and Feedback Loops to Test for Sanity
Internal audits shouldn’t just check compliance—they should test whether processes make sense in practice. Invite cross-functional teams to stress-test procedures, challenge unnecessary complexity, and provide input on what actually works. Anonymous feedback mechanisms, post-mortems, and regular process reviews help uncover hidden risks and operational absurdities. These feedback loops bring common sense into governance structures.
Promote Psychological Safety in Risk Culture
Psychological safety is foundational to any effective risk culture. People must feel safe to ask questions, challenge decisions, or admit mistakes without fear of punishment. This doesn’t mean lowering standards—it means building trust. Leaders set the tone: when they model curiosity, humility, and accountability, others follow. A safe culture allows risk to surface early—where it can be addressed, not buried.
Conclusion: Sanity Is a Competitive Advantage
In a world full of dashboards, scorecards, and policy manuals, it’s easy to lose sight of something basic but powerful: common sense. It’s not just a cultural luxury—it’s a competitive advantage. Organisations that value practical judgment, transparency, and open dialogue move faster, make better decisions, and manage risk more effectively.
Common sense reduces friction. It helps teams cut through bureaucracy and focus on what truly matters. It empowers individuals to spot problems early, raise their hand, and take ownership without waiting for permission. When you create space for reason and responsibility, you boost agility and resilience at every level.
Transparency is equally essential. It may feel uncomfortable in the short term, but it’s what protects organisations in the long run. Cover-ups, manipulated metrics, and internal politics don’t just slow progress—they quietly multiply risk. When people are encouraged to speak the truth, even when it is hard, risk becomes visible and manageable.
At The Risk Station, we believe that restoring sanity in how we manage risk is not idealism—it’s smart governance. Our insights, tools, and frameworks help organisations bridge the gap between structure and sense, between compliance and courage. Explore our latest thinking on risk culture, transparency, and strategic decision-making—and let’s bring common sense back into business, one decision at a time.
