"ACEO calls her staff into the conference room on the eve of the launch of a major new initiative. They file in and take their seats around the table. She calls the meeting to attention and begins: “**I have bad news. The project has failed spectacularly. Tell me what went wrong?**” "**What?! But we haven’t even launched yet**… "That’s the point. **The CEO is forcing an exercise in hind-sight—in advance**. She is using a technique designed by psychologist [[Gary Klein]] known as a premortem. "In a postmortem, doctors convene to examine the causes of a patient’s unexpected death so they can learn and improve for the next time a similar circumstance arises. Outside of the medical world, we call this a number of things—a debriefing, an exit interview, a wrap-up meeting, a review—but whatever it’s called, the idea is the same: We’re examining the project in hindsight, after it happened. "**A premortem is different. In it, we look to envision what could go wrong, what will go wrong, in advance, before we start**. Far too many ambitious undertakings fail for preventable reasons. Far too many people don’t have a backup plan because they refuse to consider that something might not go exactly as they wish." ([Location 1691](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX49OS4&location=1691)) --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[preparation]], [[pre-mortem]], [[collaboration]] **Source** -- [[202409180132 - B - The Obstacle is the Way]]