Premortem

Gary Klein - HBR - this article was quite intersting. I belive, this could be one of the procedures for thinking in organization - to help alleviate or provide feedback to quality of thinking.

Unlike a typical critiquing session, in which project team members are asked what might go wrong, the premortem operates on the assumption that the “patient” has died, and so asks what did go wrong. The team members’ task is to generate plausible reasons for the project’s failure.

It’s beautiful as an idea: Coz, when people are coming close to a decision, it becomes very difficult to raise doubts or raise questions. As, there is fear that person would be tagged as someone who is slowing down the whole group - when the group is about to make a decision. And may at times, that person is perceived as annoying and want to get rid of them or ignore and move on. This premortem legitimizes that sort of descent and that sort of doubt; not just legitimizes it - but also rewards it.

BTW: I dont think its going to prevent people from making mistakes. But it would certainly allow people to possible loop holes to think through before making a safer decision.