We project goals, milestones, accountability measures. We allocate resources. We plan for success, as we should.
But here’s the question that changes everything: If you failed by [specific future date], what would be the reason?
Not could fail. Not might fail. What would cause the failure?
This isn’t pessimism. It’s precision.
When we ask this question early, we uncover the risks we’re ignoring. The resource gaps we’re pretending don’t exist. The dependencies we’ve assumed away. The constraints we’ve been too optimistic about.
Most planning focuses on what we hope will happen. Premortem planning asks what we’re not accounting for.
And once we know what could derail us, we can decide what to control, what to mitigate, what to monitor closely.
The best plans don’t just imagine success. They anticipate failure and build safeguards accordingly.
What are you not planning for?
