So, what’s a pre-mortem?pic.twitter.com/lzKwfpL8As
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What was missing, I realized, was an evocative, convenient lexicon that allowed people to talk about these things in a psychologically safe manner. Related: I learned quite late in my career the tremendous benefits of giving your team a context-specific lexicon. Don’t be me.
The way I like to run pre-mortems now is to ask them to list out their concerns about the project in 3 different categories:
Why are you not worried about a Paper Tiger (even though others might be)? Usually because you’re responsible for the said area and have strong conviction that the ostensible Tiger is fully under control. You’ve got it!
An Elephant might not be a threat per se, but it’s the thing you’re worried no one is talking about. It’s the “elephant in the room”.
So, with this lexicon, here’s how I recommend running a pre-mortem meeting:
During the context setting part, I introduce the pre-mortem concept (it’s always *someone’s* first pre-mortem) and ask everyone on the team to come up with: 2 Tigers (at least), and any Paper Tigers and Elephants they can think of.
There is absolutely no talking during this time. Quiet time! It’s amazing how long & productive a 10 minute stretch of silence can be in a meeting, when no one is talking.
After that, there’s another 10 minutes of Quiet time. During this time, people read everyone else’s Tigers, Paper Tigers, and Elephants. And they get to +1 others’ Tigers, Paper Tigers, and Elephants. Each person can give up to five +1s. So you need to be quite selective.pic.twitter.com/k2oSHFr9hy
Btw, this is all being done in a shared Google doc or a Dropbox Paper doc. One advantage of Paper being that you can easily see who wrote what.
And then, Quiet time is over. You go around the room, and people share their observations (e.g. what Tiger resonated the most, what they found surprising, etc.)
And, as the facilitator, you wrap the meeting up by summarizing the top themes that have emerged from the pre-mortem and sharing what people can expect next.pic.twitter.com/V2KSmkKBCq
So, what’s next? It’s the most important part of the entire process. The pre-mortem action plan. As the facilitator, you prioritize the top N Tigers / Elephants that emerged from the pre-mortem exercise.pic.twitter.com/qB8JdjJkmX
You create a document that summarizes the action plan and share it with the team for commentary. Here’s a hypothetical example:pic.twitter.com/9japrYgTaK
Note that your goal isn’t to list *every possible problem* in the action plan. You must focus on the major problems (i.e. the deadliest Tigers), and be fine with living with the minor ones.
You cannot (and should not) fix all problems because you don’t want progress to grind to a halt. But more importantly, I’ll observe that solving one problem often creates a different problem.
So you’ve got to have clarity on which problems you’re willing to live with and which ones you can’t live with. (this is perhaps applicable outside of one's work life too)
Also note that it’s important to list the verbatim Tigers and Elephants (as in column 2), since it reassures team members that their *direct input* was useful. Every item must have a single Directly Responsible Individual (DRI). (they can of course delegate, as appropriate)pic.twitter.com/9SIqvVGDjw
And the last column lists the proposed mitigating actions, in priority order, that will *reduce the chances* of the problem occurring, OR will *limit its negative impact* if it does occur.pic.twitter.com/6re4gZluix
Once you’ve reviewed the action plan with the team, make sure that you track progress against the action plan during the rest of the life of the project.
You can do it by merging the action plan with the overall project plan, so it becomes an integral part of “how we do things around here” vs. a one-off effort. So that’s pretty much it.
How do these pre-mortems help the team? Besides the obvious benefit of reducing the chances of major mistakes, I love it when team members wholly adopt the “Tiger", "Paper Tiger", "Elephant” metaphors.
It’s quite typical that, N days after the pre-mortem meeting, team members will say in a meeting/on Slack/email: “I recently thought of a Tiger that’s been worrying me since” “Remember, that’s the Elephant that Bob pointed out earlier. We still need to do work there.”, etc.
Saying in a meeting “I’d like to talk about a Tiger” is lower pressure on the individual than dealing with the fear (rational or not) of coming across as “pessimistic” or a “naysayer” when expressing their concerns in normal English. These metaphors can be quite powerful!
And by calling out the importance of spotting deadly Tigers and talking about the big Elephants, you create more psychological safety for team members to bring up their concerns.
After a well-run pre-mortem meeting, observe your team members as they exit the meeting. Odds are high that their faces will look more relieved, their gait more optimistic. Why? Because the problem that had been worrying thus far them is no longer just THEIR problem to carry.
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