Things go wrong, all the time. Why do so many plans fail? Why are there so many service complaints, from so many customers, of so many companies? Somebody somewhere introduced a process after a lot of thought, why does it fail in implementation?

A pre-mortem is a managerial strategy in which a project team imagines that a project or organization has failed, and then works backwards to determine what potentially could have led to the failure of the project or organization.

More Detail on the topic

Research conducted in 1989 by Deborah J. Mitchell, of the Wharton School; Jay Russo, of Cornell; and Nancy Pennington, of the University of Colorado, found that prospective hindsight – imagining that an event has already occurred – increases the ability to correctly identify reasons for future outcomes by 30%

A typical pre-mortem begins after the team has been briefed on the plan. The leader starts the exercise by informing everyone that the project has failed spectacularly. Over the next few minutes, those in the room independently write down every reason they can think of for the failure – especially the kinds of things they ordinarily wouldn’t mention as potential problems, for fear of being impolite. - Gary Klein. 2007. Performing a Project Premortem. Harvard Business Review. September. pp. 18–19

I love the following in this concept:

1. Spectacular Failure: not just any kind of failure, but a spectacular one. That I think really brings a lot to the whole exercise.

2. It is dead. Not somehow living a little, doing just about ok, dead dead.

3. Reasons, especially ones we wouldn't mention for fear of being impolite. A lot of team members just don't want to tell the boss that the plan is not going to work.  

Here are some examples of things we ran into when we ran this with our client teams.

• For a very high profile wedding

The client resort did a lot of weddings, but this one was an extremely high profile one. Nothing could go wrong.

Everything was ok, till we did a pre-mortem. A maintenance team member pointed out that the stand-alone banquet Genset was acting up. Nothing was wrong, but considering this was such a big event, he thought there should be a backup. No one had ever thought of a backup for the Genset. 

Once that was agreed upon (a long power cable to the hotel Genset was arranged, took 8 hours to set up), someone in the team mentioned using UPS and Self Charging lights at strategic locations in the hall to ensure immediate lighting if there was a power failure. (There was a 5 second lag to the Genset kicking in).  

Post the event, which went off without a power failure, this became standard practice and the strategic lighting (made to look good too), was demonstrated and used during sales pitches and guests visits.  The pre-mortem had created a new selling point.

• Italian Groups / Travel

Another client had bagged a contract for an Italian tourist series. Plans were made to create new foods, drinks, activities and spruce up the property. Senior leadership was very happy. The pre-morterm was almost dismissed, till a Guest Relations mentioned that they did not have a single team member who spoke Italian.  A local guide who spoke fluent Italian has hired for the coordination and the entire series went well.

How To Pre-Mortem

Step 1 - Choose the participants

Anyone who has a stake in the process/project should be a part of the activity. Do not restrict this only to managers or leaders etc. The reasons for failure generally come from the ones who know what the problems on the ground could be.  

Step 2 - Detail The Plan

This is very important. When you get the team together, first discuss the plan, lay it all out and only then start the pre-mortem. All the details should be fresh in the minds of the participants. 

Step 3 - Imagine The Failure / Death Of The Outcome

The exercise leader should say the words 'The project XYZ was a spectacular failure. We are gathered here today to discuss the possible reasons'

Step 4 - Generate Reasons For The Failure

You can do this in a group mode, with anyone saying out what they think and capturing it all on a whiteboard or you can ask the participants to take 10 minutes and make a personal list first, and then share.

Step 5 - Discuss / Consolidate The Lists

Make sure that everyone is allowed to share their reasons. Encourage people who do not normally share or talk a lot.  You can also have everyone drop their lists into a box, thereby allowing them to share anonymously.

Step 6 - Revisit The Plan, Incorporate

Now that you have the reasons for the failure, revisit the plan and see if you can address the concern. Can you tweak something in the process? Can you add a step, remove a step? Do you need additional knowledge, resources or people?  

Want to make this WOW? 

Assess Likelihood, Impact, and Ease Of Prevention for each of the reasons on the list.

Hotel cars that guests request can break down. It is machinery, but let's filter that from the perspective of Likelihood, Impact, and Ease Of Prevention.

Let's do this for a major city hotel, where a guest requests an airport pick up.

• Likelihood: of a car breakdown could be low, especially if the cars are serviced regularly, and a major city may have better roads etc.

• Ease of Prevention: is high, ensure service and regular maintenance. One could also outsource the whole car service operation.

• Impact: can be low. Considering this is a major city airport, you should be able to easily get another car available or use another provider. The guest can also wait at the airport in case it takes some time to arrange alternatives.

But if you do this from the perspective of a resort that sends out a car or jeep into the woods or to a hilltop for a picnic, then the exercise has a different outcome.

• Likelihood of a car breakdown could be high because of the terrain.

• Ease of Prevention: could be low. lack of good service options, terrain, or just not enough regular use.

• Impact: can be High. Being stranded, not being able to get another ride in time, tough surroundings etc. Lack of food or water. This single experience could ruin the entire vacation.

The resort would be advised to work on these parameters. 

Something you should do right now:

Go a little deeper into the real small issues that you would normally not think of. We once had a situation where an angry guest was asked to sign a bill after having been offered a ton of apology and massive discounts and then the pen did not work. The guest just lost it at that.

p.s. If you are interested in knowing what the resort did to mitigate the risks, write to me at p.bedi@eclathospitality.com