I would answer with what I know: Navy Operational Risk Management (ORM).  The Aviation Safety Program succeeds by preventing damage or injury.  Potential causes of damage and injury under human control are termed hazards and the goal of the Aviation Safety Program is to eliminate or control these hazards.  The program is based on the concept of necessitarianism, which teaches us that mishaps are the inevitable result of their antecedent causes which precede them in time.  In other words, mishaps do not “just happen.”  Thus, it should be clear that we can prevent mishaps when we eliminate their causes beforehand.

            A former Commander of mine, Admiral George Mayer, stated that “ORM is a key tactic in our long-term war on mishaps”.  In this struggle our enemy is, in most cases, our own human errors.  The threat is our own habits, limited knowledge, poor planning, and our acceptance of unnecessary risk.  ORM teaches people how to recognize risk, evaluate it, and control it in order to facilitate mission accomplishment.  By inspecting how we live and work in these terms, we facilitate smart decision making which leads us ever closer to a mishap-free team.  

            The ORM program is designed to eliminate unnecessary losses, whether in flight or training, by providing the top-leadership with an understanding of risks associated with pending actions.  The knowledge gained will help define and control risks and subsequent actions will improve effectiveness, and ultimately contribute to a continued high state of readiness.

            ORM is a decision-making tool used by personnel at all levels to increase operational effectiveness by identifying, assessing, and managing risks.  By reducing the potential for loss, the probability of a successful mission is increased.  Specifically, the probability of mission success is increased by dealing with risk associated with flight operations.  This includes risk assessment, risk decision making, and implementation of effective risk controls in eliminating hazards inherent to our business.  

            A hazard is defined as anything real or potential that can cause personal injury or death, property damage or mission degradation, or damage to environment.  ORM defines risk as a chance of adverse outcome or bad consequences; such as injury, illness, or loss.  Risk level is expressed in terms of mishap probability and or hazard severity.  To understand risk within the ORM program, mishap probability, hazard severity, risk assessment, and the risk assessment code (RAC) assigned to a defined hazard, must be defined.  Mishap probability is an assessment of the likelihood that, given exposure to a hazard, an accident or mishap will result.  Hazard severity is another assessment of the expected consequence, defined by degree of injury or occupational illness that could occur from exposure to a hazard.  Risk assessment is a structured process used to identify and assess hazards.  It is an expression of potential harm, described in terms of hazard severity, accident probability, and exposure to hazards.  Finally, the overall goal is to assign a RAC to the hazard.  The RAC is used to quantify and prioritize mitigation strategies to the assessed risks.  This is a five-step process used to identify hazards, assess risks associated to that hazard, and to implement controls to reduce the risk associated with any flight operation.