A Simple Tool To Avoid Failure (In Life & Business)
The question to ask before any important decision
Edition No. 10
Every day we make decisions where we can’t be certain of the outcome. From buying or renovating a house, entering a new relationship, having children, launching a business, creating a product or service, sharing our art with the world, and many more.
Throughout my career I’ve always taken the time at the end of a project (launching a course, promoting a book, going over my quarterly and year-end finances) when I take the time to review how everything went. I always ask three simple but important questions:
What worked?
What didn’t?
What can I do better next time?
This review process is often called a “post-mortem”. But perhaps even more important is to do a “pre-mortem”. Instead of waiting until the end to understand what went wrong, you ask the question before you begin. It looks like this…
A Simple Tool to Manage Risk & Avoid Failure
When I work with mentor clients I ask a simple but important question in the business diagnostic stage. “What could go wrong?”
When we embark on any project we often have stars in our eyes. We are excited about all the possibilities. The reticular activating system in our brain is often seeking all the ways this will succeed, which is great. It makes us feel excited and fuels our energy to work through the long to-do list of getting anything done.
But an important step that can be often overlooked is taking the time to anticipate how things could go wrong.
We need to anticipate the risks.
After all, there is always something that goes wrong — from our timeline, to expectations or pricing, location… And the assumptions we make too quickly.
Sometimes we can be reluctant to take the time to do a pre-mortem. We can feel that it’s going to slow us down, or undermine the plan. But it’s an opportunity to be really honest with ourselves, about our ideas and blind spots.
If you’re working with a partner or team, it’s important that people can feel safe sharing their concerns, fears or observations.
Gary Klein popularised the idea of a pre-mortem in a Harvard Business Review article, and provided this prompt:
“Imagine it is [X months/years] from now, and this project has completely failed. What did go wrong?”
Essentially, we want to anticipate failure. Look at the most likely culprits. And come up with ideas to avoid them now (rather looking back and wishing you’d taken the necessary steps). In other words, you’re harnessing your 20/20 hindsight now.
Brené Brown says in this episode of The Curiosity Shop that if you want to win or grow in any area of your business or life… you need to want to win more than protect your ego. You need to have hard conversations. Ask yourself: What do you have to do to reach your goal? And, just as importantly: What do you have to NOT do to reach it? We often overlook that part.
Personally, I find my roadblocks are often patterns of behaviour or mindset shifts I need to make.
Here are some more questions you can ask yourself to save yourself a lot of tears, heartache, and headaches (financially or otherwise) down the track.
Remember, you can apply these ideas to relationships and parenting just as much as running a business.
Try These Pre-Mortem Questions
How can this fail?
Where are my blind spots?
In one year from now, what I be talking about?
What am I assuming that may not be true?
What am I avoiding because it feels uncomfortable?
What needs more of my attention?
Where am I overcomplicating?
Where am I locked into a particular idea? How can I be open to other possibilities?
What would make this simpler, better or more sustainable?
While we can’t remove all risks. We can take responsibility for what we can influence, and what we can change.
It’s easy to blame the economy, the market, the algorithm, the government, the timing, or other people. But when we take the time to look at what we can control, we become more empowered, and the captain of our destiny.
Asking this one important question — what can go wrong? — can save us a lot of unnecessary regret.
Anticipating obstacles is a form of radical ownership over whatever situation we face.
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