Michele Wucker, best-selling author of “The Gray Rhino”, will be publishing her new book, “You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating and Uncertain World” on April 6, 2021.
What drives a sixty-four-year-old woman to hurl herself over Niagara Falls in a barrel? Why do young journalists risk their lives to tell the stories of strangers? Why do some people wait until the last minute to get to the airport while others get there much earlier than they need to? Why do entrepreneurs thrive in the face of uncertainty, while others cringe at the thought of leaving a stable nine-to-five job?
Michele offers a bold new framework for understanding risk in and how we can re-examine and re-shape our relationship with uncertainty to live more productive and successful lives.
Risk-takers are motivated by factors as wide and culture and values, but it boils down to not just how much they have to gain or lose, but aware they are of these often-unconscious influences and what they do to manage them.
In You Are What You Risk, Wucker examines why we avoid risk, when we should embrace it, and how we can re-examine and re-shape our relationship with uncertainty, danger, and opportunity.Drawing on the stories of risk takers across cultures and generations, and integrating cross-disciplinary insights from economics, business and management, anthropology, sociology, and psychology, this ground-breaking, accessible book offers a completely new way to understand and face a changing world.
You Are What You Risk shares insights, practical tools, and proven strategies that will help readers to seize ownership of and make better choices about risks big and small. Wucker shows how the new science of risk personality—our own “risk fingerprint”—is beginning to shape businesses and finances and offers a path forward. Wucker looks at those seeking to create a healthy risk ecosystem that supports creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship for diverse communities, organizations, and the environment.
Wucker’s profiles and research help to answer important questions: Why are some people good at averting crises at work but a mess in their personal lives? Why are we more likely to take chances when we are part of a group than when on our own? Are we born with our risk attitudes or do we pick them up along the way? What is the right amount of uncertainty to live with? The answers will surprise and challenge us – and make us think and act differently.
Filled with practical tools and strategies, You Are What You Risk is a clarion call for a new approach to risk, at a time when risk decisions have never been more crucial, particularly in a world where political turmoil, economic insecurity, technological transformation, and climate change have exposed us to unprecedented levels of vulnerability.
Michele Wucker is an award-wining global thought leader who draws on three decades of experience in media and non-profit management and policy development.
Michele is the author of several books, the third of which is the highly praised “THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore”, which grew out of a presentation at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland in which she coined the term “gray rhino” for highly probable, high impact crisis events.
Michele founded Gray Rhino & Company in 2015 to help leaders and organizations to identify and strategize responses to gray rhino risks that are neglected despite -and all too often because of- their size.
Michele has been recognized as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a Guggenheim Fellow, among other honors. Her previous leadership positions include Vice President for Studies at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs; President of the World Policy Institute, which she re-launched in 2007 in a dramatic turnaround; and Latin America Bureau Chief at International Financing Review. She also has taught master’s students at the School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, of which she is an alumna. An engaging keynote speaker, moderator, panelist, and facilitator, she has delivered presentations in 16 countries on five continents. She lives in Chicago.
Michele Wucker is the author of The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore, which was the #1 bestselling English-language book in China. She is also the author of Lockout and Why the Cocks Fight. Wucker has been recognized as a 2009 Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow. She has held positions including president of the New York City-based World Policy Institute; vice president of studies at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs; and Latin America bureau chief at International Financing Review. She has written for The New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and World Policy Journal, among others. She lives in Chicago.
Michele’s speaking topics include:
- Gray Rhino-Proofing Your Future: A New Way to Think about Risk and Response
- Gray Rhinos, not Black Swans: A New Way to Think about Risk and Response
- Demographic Gray Rhinos: Robots Meet Aging and Migration
- Beyond Kicking the Can: How to Stop Muddling and Innovate
Contact us to engage Michele Wucker to speak at conference.