Risk management is all about being proactive. Risk analysis is undertaken to identify where things might go wrong. This does require some experience and, indeed, the wider your experience the more likely you are to be able to recognize issues as problems or to identify potential problems. The general principles of risk management are presented quite lucidly in the Australia/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4360:1999 (Standards Australia, 1999) and will be discussed later in this Chapter.

“Why bother with that? It's never happened here!”

How often have you identified a potential problem, only to be told “Oh that's never been a problem here,” or “We've never had a problem with that,” or “Why waste our time, that's just so unlikely”? Of course, the truth is that this head-in-the-sand mentality is exactly why some of the worst problems in IVF labs have arisen. We have personally experienced situations where an identified risk was pooh-poohed by the Medical Director, General Manager or equivalent, only to have just that problem occur a few weeks later – although professional confidentiality clearly precludes quoting specific examples! The dreaded “It's never happened here …” should probably be considered a warning bell that a proper risk assessment should be undertaken forthwith. After all, Captain Edward John Smith hadn't hit any icebergs before the maiden voyage of the Titanic, either!