🎯 Goal: Strategic Thinking

⏰ Time: 20 minutes

⚠️ Difficulty: 3 (Moderate)

Summary:

Some people resist the urge to think about the worst-case scenario. But if you’re really committed to achieving big things, you need to think about what could go wrong.

The pre-mortem is an exercise developed by psychologist Gary Klein. Unlike an After Action Review, a pre-mortem is conducted before embarking on a new project or path. Your goal is to visualize the failure of your endeavor and figure out how to avoid it.

Instructions:

Before the start of a new project, event, or quarter, ask yourself and your team the following question:

Imagine it’s the day after the big launch and it was an unmitigated FAILURE. How did things go so wrong?

Follow this up with a series of specific questions (courtesy of Andy Ellwood)

1. Final moments: What happened moments before it was over?
2. Time of death: When would you know it wasn’t working?
3. Cause of death: What was the fatal blow?
4. Final wishes: What will you have wished you had done?