Decision-making glossary
Pre-mortem
A pre-mortem is a planning exercise in which a team imagines that a project has already failed and each person writes down the most plausible reasons why. Run before a decision is final, it surfaces risks that people would otherwise keep to themselves. Gary Klein described the method in a 2007 Harvard Business Review article.
The leader states the premise: it is some months from now, we went ahead, and it failed. Everyone writes reasons on their own first, so that nobody anchors on the most senior voice. The group then goes round, one reason at a time, until the list is exhausted, and the plan is revised against the strongest items.
It works because it changes the social task. In a normal review, raising doubts can look disloyal to the plan. In a pre-mortem, finding reasons for failure is the assignment, so the people with reservations are the ones doing the job well.
A pre-mortem differs from a risk register, which lists risks already known, and from a post-mortem, which happens after the damage. Common mistakes are running it after the decision is effectively made, letting the most senior person speak first, and producing a list that never changes the plan.
Free template: Pre-mortem template
Sources: Gary Klein, “Performing a Project Premortem”, Harvard Business Review (2007)