Project Tip: conduct a premortem

Here's a great idea from Gary Klein in September's Harvard Business Review:  rather than conducting a project postmortem, after a project has died, why not conduct an imaginary project premortem at the start of the project?

Klein writes:

"Research conducted in 1989 by Deborah J. Mitchell, of the Wharton
School; Jay Russo, of Cornell; and Nancy Pennington, of the University
of Colorado, found that prospective hindsight -- imagining that an
event has already occurred -- increases the ability to correctly
identify reasons for future outcomes by 30%."

Here's the process, in a nutshell:

• The project leader kicks off by announcing that the project has failed spectacularly.
• Everyone participating independently brain dumps why they think this has happened.
• Next the leader asks each team member, starting with the project manager, to read one reason from his or her list; everyone states a different reason until all have been recorded.
• After the session is over, the project manager reviews the list, looking for ways to strengthen the plan.

As it happens, I am helping one of my clients PMs to kick off a project tomorrow.  We will definitely be using a premortem.

Even more importantly ... I've just conducted a quick but very personal premortem on myself - imagining what I just died off - and I suddenly feel overwhelmingly motivated to lose weight. 

Comments

[Raven]

Hi Clarke - I like the idea of a pre-mortem, very interesting. I referred to your post at my blog and am hoping you'll update us after you use the premortem process on your next project. I can see where the benefits and would love a real world example.

[Mario]

Hi, Clarke,
I use a pre-requisite tree in premortem sessions since... i can't remember.
It works.

[Joe]

@Mario -

Can you clarify what you mean by "pre-requisite tree?" I'd be interested in learning more about how you do that.

Joe