-
Learning Innovation
A space for conversation and debate about learning and technology.
Title
Worrying About 'The Fifth Risk’
A whole new set of reasons to worry about Trump.
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
Published in October of 2018
What would you name as the top 5 risks for higher education?
Lewis asks this question to former government employees from the departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce about their agencies.
The former chief risk officer at Energy answers: 1) a broken arrow (a lost or damaged nuclear missile/bomb), 2 and 3) North Korea and Iranian nuclear aggression, 4) the vulnerability of the electrical grid.
It is the 5th risk that Lewis focuses on, and it where the book’s title comes from. That risk is bad project management.
Most of what the government does, as Lewis points out, only makes the news when things go very badly. The real work of government involves dealing with enormously complex challenges that can’t be managed by the market.
These challenges include everything from ensuring that the food supply is safe to guarding against a dirty bomb going off at the Super Bowl. Much of our modern economy depends on the data that the federal government collects, analyzes, and disseminates.
In a surprise to exactly nobody, the Trump administration has demonstrated zero knowledge, curiosity, or interest in what the federal government actually does. Lewis’ description of the transition from the previous administration read like are harrowing. Trump’s political appointees are either unqualified or actively hostile to the missions of the organizations they are meant to run.
The degree to which the Trump administration will succeed in derailing the unglamorous but essential work of the federal government remains to be seen. The Fifth Risk does an excellent job of highlighting the quiet dedication of most government workers, and the incuriosity and ineptitude of their new political bosses. What the book does not do enough of is examine the resiliency of the structures and systems of government from the Black Swan type event of a Trump presidency.
Before reading The Fifth Risk, I’m not sure if I would have put bad project management on my higher ed list of worries. Now I will. The complexity of the government’s business that Lewis describes mirrors the complexity of a modern university.
For those of you who are not audiobook addicts, The Fifth Risk will allow you to read the Department of Commerce materials that were originally included in the audiobook only The Coming Storm.
If you have already listened to that Audible only production, The Fifth Risk is still very much worth the investment.
I’d be willing to wager that the readers of IHE and the readers of Michael Lewis’ books largely overlap. The next book that Lewis should write is the story of the new higher education.
What are you reading?
Trending Stories
THE Campus
Resources for faculty and staff from our partners at Times Higher Education.
- How to tell if your university is making a genuine effort to increase diversity
- Strengthening academic integrity requires action from students and teachers alike
- Asynchronous pedagogy to improve student engagement
- How to raise the bar on the teaching section of your CV
- Challenges and opportunities of the 60-year curriculum
Most Shared Stories
- Academic experts offer advice on ChatGPT
- ChatGPT sparks debate on how to design student assignments now
- Women chairs face mushrooming demands with inadequate support (opinion) | Inside Higher Ed
- When disgraced presidents return (or never go away)
- The role of the liberal arts in an era of skills-based hiring
But What About Outcomes?
It’s Complicated