Unawareness, false assurance and blind spots are just a few of many risks organizations face. If the financial crisis has but a single lesson, it is this: What we don’t know can be more important than what we do know. This raises the ultimate rhetorical question, “Do we know what we don’t know?”

The reality of today’s environment is that management and the board can never be certain that they know everything they need to know. This issue of Board Perspectives: Risk Oversight suggests eight steps executives and directors can take to manage uncertainty.