Pre mortems as a pressure management tool
Use an imagined failure review to surface practical risks before a pressured team commits. Treat it as a facilitation method, not a proven wellness treatment.
The performance question
The exercise asks a team to imagine that a planned launch has failed and identify plausible reasons. Its value for this purpose is concrete: locating tasks, dependencies or assumptions that need protection before demand peaks. It must not become a theatrical prediction of disaster.
What the evidence supports
HSE recommends assessing workload during unusual activities and emergencies, involving workers in task analysis. That supports structured anticipation of demands. The guidance does not validate pre mortems specifically or establish their effect on stress, retention or commercial outcomes.[1]
A practical approach
Before approving a pressured programme, ask each participant to write possible failure reasons independently. Group them into capacity, dependency and evidence gaps. Select the most consequential risks, assign an owner and agree a control or decision trigger. Include those who will carry out the work, not only programme sponsors.
How to review progress
Revisit the selected risks at the first milestone. Check whether controls were implemented and whether new demands appeared. Judge the exercise by useful changes to delivery, not the number of concerns collected. Stop if it duplicates an existing risk review without improving action.
Sources and references
- Human factors: Workload Opens in a new tab
Health and Safety Executive
Processing limits, task analysis, workload drift and staffing