This lesson is available to learners who have purchased the lesson or full course.
1. The Power of the Pre-mortem
In the opening lesson, Gary Klein challenges traditional approaches of risk assessment, and demonstrates why they are often ineffective. You’ll learn the psychological dynamics that keep people silent even when they see flaws, and how the Pre-mortem leverages a clever mindset shift to help teams surface hidden concerns.
The Power of Pre-mortems: How to Spot Problems Before They Happen
Learn how to uncover potential failure points before they derail your plan. In this self-paced course, cognitive psychologist Gary Klein teaches you how to run and adapt the Pre-mortem method to real-world challenges, helping teams surface candid feedback and build foresight when it matters most.
Lesson info
In the opening lesson, Gary Klein challenges traditional approaches of risk assessment, and demonstrates why they are often ineffective. You’ll learn the psychological dynamics that keep people silent even when they see flaws, and how the Pre-mortem leverages a clever mindset shift to help teams surface hidden concerns.
Browse Lessons
Lesson 1: The Power of the Pre-mortem
In the opening lesson, Gary Klein challenges traditional approaches of risk assessment, and demonstrates why they are often ineffective. You’ll learn the psychological dynamics that keep people silent even when they see flaws, and how the Pre-mortem leverages a clever mindset shift to help teams surface hidden concerns.
Lesson 2: Insights About the Pre-mortem
This lesson features a conversation between Gary Klein and John Schmitt, the CEO of ShadowBox. Discussion topics include the origin of the Pre-mortem, the method’s key steps, and what often goes wrong when teams try to apply it. You’ll come away with a better understanding of how the Pre-mortem originated and actionable advice from two expert Pre-mortem facilitators.
Lesson 3: How to Facilitate a Pre-mortem: Introduction
Gary provides a brief introduction to set the stage for the ExpertEyes™ exercise that will be completed in the next lesson on our ShadowBox Web App.
Lesson 4: How to Facilitate a Pre-mortem: ExpertEyes™ Demonstration
Watch a filmed Pre-mortem session unfold, where not everything goes as planned. Using the ShadowBox ExpertEyes™ platform introduced in the previous lesson, you’ll complete an exercise where you observe a facilitated Pre-mortem and are prompted to identify what the facilitator does well, what he gets wrong, and what could be improved.
Lesson 5: How to Facilitate a Pre-mortem: Debrief
After completing the ShadowBox ExpertEyes™ exercise, join Gary as he breaks down each of the identified areas of opportunity from the exercise to reinforce best practices and help you get it right the first time.
Lesson 6: Adaptations of the Pre-mortem
Not every plan, and not every team, needs the same approach. In this final lesson, Gary introduces three variations to the traditional Pre-mortem: the Racking & Stacking technique for prioritizing failure modes, the Success Scan for goal-driven planning, and the Double-Barreled approach for balancing risk and inaction. You’ll also hear testimonials from professionals who have adapted the method in creative, effective ways.