PRE-MORTEM

Do you have doubts about the decision you just made? 

You can use a pre-mortem to surface hidden assumptions, concerns, and objections to the any decision-making.

Imagine the project failed. Discuss this with your group: What led to the failure? Specify the factors and bring out the hidden assumptions behind the decision. 

Try to be as exact in identifying the root cause.

Misalignment.
Lack of resources.
Overconfidence in the projections re: market response.
Product weaknesses
Lack of proper marketing.

This will eliminate groupthink, reliance on one paradigm, confirmation bias, and even the halo effect. 

People in the room will become more open to other perspectives and will try to rethink the decision based on these "reasons for failing."

They will also be open to diverse voices, review the figures they've based previously, and call on other external experts to help them out. 

With the help of a skilled facilitator, it can open up a can of worms or take hold of missed opportunities in the decision-making. 

Either a pre-mortem analysis will avoid some of these mistakes in business, finance, and life decisions.

The post-mortem is after-the-fact, which is hindsight working for you.

The pre-mortem is before-the-fact, which for me is the first step to risk mitigation and avoiding massive losses that's preventable.

Choose pre-mortem so your post-mortem is not that bad.