Shields Up, Heat Maps Down: Dismantling ERM Illusions with Tim Leech

In this transmission of Risk Is Our Business, host Michael Rasmussen connects over comms with Tim Leech, pioneer of Objective Centric Risk and Uncertainty Management (#OCRUM), longtime board advisor, and someone who’s spent decades trying to rescue enterprise risk from the black hole of checkbox compliance.

Recorded over a long-distance call (no transporters this time), this episode dives straight into the uncomfortable truth of modern ERM often being more about optics than outcomes. Tim and Michael dismantle the illusion of risk registers and heat maps, exposing how many programs are built to pacify boards and regulators rather than support real decision-making.

But Tim doesn’t stop at critique. He offers a new model, one where risk starts with the people who actually run the business, where strategy sets the coordinates, and where the board isn’t kept in the dark behind colored charts but engaged with objective-driven insight.

Together, they explore how to overcome resistance across the enterprise, align the crew, and finally bring risk back to the bridge—not as an afterthought, but as a core navigational system.

If your program is still flying blind on outdated frameworks, it’s time to recalibrate.