What is Pre-Mortem?
A planning technique where a team imagines that a project has already failed, then works backward to identify what likely caused it. Developed by psychologist Gary Klein, it surfaces hidden risks and blind spots before they become real problems.
My perspective
In practice
Run at the start of any significant initiative. Ask: "It's twelve months from now and this completely fell apart. What happened?" The psychological shift from "this might go wrong" to "this has gone wrong" bypasses optimism bias and surfaces the concerns people were hesitant to voice.