Frontier of Risk

Frontier of risk is a way of thinking about risk in the context of goal setting, you want a goal to not exist in the “totally confident” realm with no risk but also in the “unknown path, possibly unachievable zone¹. The frontier of risk is the zone between these two poles: Two far in the former direction and your team is playing it safe, too far in the other direction and you risk consistently missing goals and demoralizing your team. In order to help set the goal, use clarifying questions to move your self between these poles¹:

Zones
Understanding Risk	Do we understand the risks that will keep us from achieving this goal?
Dependency Risk	Do we have the right resources to hit the goal?
Execution Risk	Can we do this goal?
Strategic Risk	Does the strategy work? If it doesn’t this goal won’t be achievable.

1. Mehta, R. An alternative to OKRs: How to set and achieve ambitious goals. https://www.ravi-mehta.com/an-alternative-to-okrs-how-to-set-and-achieve-ambitious-goals/ (2024).