Reframing Risk

"We want to change perception of the compliance function from being the “department of saying NO!” to the “department of saying YES! with confidence” - Dame Amelia Fawcett. Governor of The Wellcome Trust and Chair of their Audit Committee

This memorable quote captures the ambition of Dame Amelia to position compliance as an enabler, and to help all colleagues to effectively balance risk and opportunity in their work. It’s an aspiration shared by most organisations, and one that Acteon helped Wellcome to fulfil. 

Wellcome is a global charitable foundation, headquartered in London. Every year, they fund around two billion pounds of research into global health challenges like infectious disease, mental health and climate-related health issues. As a high-profile, international organisation, working in sensitive social and political environments, Wellcome must take great care with decision-making. But they also want to be brave, to innovate and to deliver the greatest impact – they want to be able to say “YES! with confidence”. 

Following an extensive audit of their risk and compliance architecture, Wellcome had identified helpful adjustments to policy and process. But they’d also identified another key need – to engage people and, as they put it, to make risk part of the everyday conversation. So they asked us to help them change perceptions about compliance and risk across the organisation. 

Humans in the loop 

In areas like compliance and risk management, policy and process provide essential guide rails for the humans involved. But ultimately, it’s the specific choices and actions people use that determine outcomes – for better or worse. At Acteon, we focus on shaping those moments of choice and action to help people make good decisions. 

For Wellcome, that meant defining a simple set of questions that any colleague could use when decision making, to help them balance risk with opportunity and seek appropriate guidance if they’re not sure of the right choice. This simple triage became the core of a campaign to change perception of risk and compliance. 

A key part of the campaign was to help Wellcome ‘find its voice on risk’. We interviewed a wide range of colleagues from across the business to build a picture of what it meant to manage risk well and “say YES! with confidence”. This built authentic language and content for the campaign – the interviews were filmed and used as part of internal communication. 

We know that a strong identity helps a campaign to cut through and promote behaviour change. ‘Reframing Risk’ captured exactly what Wellcome was trying to achieve – asking colleagues to take a new perspective on compliance and risk. And a design theme inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian (himself a key player in changing perspectives of art!) provided a powerful and engaging visual metaphor. 

Shaping the conversation 

The campaign was delivered to the organisation through a range of internal communication and learning channels. Short-form video content captured contributions from senior leaders and colleagues across Wellcome. Posters adorned the central London headquarters, where most staff are based. A cascade presentation helped managers engage their teams. Their intranet – Trustnet – provided performance support resources to help people in their work. 

We also created two rich multimedia e-learning modules. One was for all staff, reinforcing the key messages of the campaign and the simple triage for balancing risk with opportunity. The second, longer, module provided more detail for colleagues with a specific risk management responsibility. 

Reframing Risk has changed perceptions at Wellcome. It’s helping to take risk management out of the compliance function and make it part of the everyday conversation. Whilst there will, of course, still be situations where the answer is “No”, colleagues are building the habits that help them balance risk with opportunity and say “Yes” with confidence. 

“Risk shouldn't be a scary word. It’s not something to shy away from, but something to get in and manage.” - Julia Gillard. Chair of Governors. Wellcome 

“Reframing Risk gives us the opportunity to consider how things could be different and what the impact of changes will be. Many other organisations would kill for that kind of opportunity!” - Shomari Lewis-Wilson. Research Ecosystems Lead. Wellcome

“We’re making risk part of the conversation. Building that shared understanding is part of how we’ll deliver our mission.” - Paul Schreier. Chief Operating Officer. Wellcome