Ep. 15: The Pre-Mortem: How Smart Leaders Plan for Failure

Most organizations spend far more time discussing why a project will succeed than why it might fail. In this episode, Bruce Spurlock takes a deep dive into the pre-mortem, a decision-making framework developed by Gary Klein and popularized by Daniel Kahneman that helps organizations identify risks before they become expensive mistakes. Unlike traditional planning exercises, the pre-mortem assumes the project has already failed and asks participants to work backward to explain why. The process creates space for dissent, surfaces hidden risks, challenges optimism bias, and often uncovers operational concerns that would otherwise remain invisible until implementation. Bruce explores: The psychology behind the pre-mortem  Why organizations struggle to discuss failure  How pre-mortems uncover unknown unknowns  The role of psychological safety  Why dissent improves decision quality  How to structure an effective pre-mortem  Common mistakes that make pre-mortems ineffective  Leadership lessons from anticipating failure  A practical discussion about better decision-making, risk management, and how healthcare leaders can improve outcomes by examining failure before it happens.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.