No Limits: The Art and Science of High Performance

by Mukesh Bansal

Performance Hack #29: Demand a Pre-mortem How many times have you thought back on a failed project and wondered what went wrong? This is a post-mortem of sorts, but by this time, it’s too late to actually make a difference. Instead, what many executives encourage is a pre-mortem before a new project. Setting aside time to analyse the future of the project in detail, predicting any and all potential problems and roadblocks, is the best way to avoid failure. Once you have listed out all the possible things that could go wrong, identify the top ten problems that you are likely to face. The next step is to shortlist solutions, back-up plans and have a plan B for each of these potential challenges, so that when you actually face the problems, you are fully prepared. Working on a pre-mortem might seem like jumping the gun, but it could effectively save you the time and money that a failed project could cost you.