Structure a planning meeting so the team imagines failure early enough to adjust commitments.
A pre-mortem makes risk discussable before it becomes expensive. The core move is simple: ask the room to assume the plan has already failed and work backward. Atlassian's play frames this as thinking through what could happen, good or bad, and making a plan before the project starts. That timing is the point. Once the team has publicly committed, warning signs often get softened or postponed. Why it works in meetings Pre-mortems create permission. People who stay quiet in optimistic planning sessions often become highly specific when the facilitator says, "Assume the plan failed. What caused it?" The exercise legitimizes…
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