Amen to the pre-mortem. They can be invaluable in framing expectations. Another tip: The "5 Reasons" exercise, i.e. In 5 minutes, the team articulates 5 Reasons an idea/project/campaign will fail. Be specific about exactly how and why. Then... flip to 5 minutes spent articulating why the same idea will be unexpectedly successful—i.e. what *could* occur if luck intervenes? Then take a break. Maybe for 24 hours. When you return, you'll very likely see immediate ways to tune, de-risk, and enhance the idea/project/campaign.
Love it Tim! As a Red Team Thinking practitioner, the 5 Reasons exercise reminds me of The Swan Dive (https://www.redteamthinking.com/swan-dive). The other exercise that is really powerful, when you have more time and have gone through several iterations of pre-mortems, 5 reasons, swan dives, etc., is the Devil's Troika (https://www.redteamthinking.com/devils-troika). I ran a team through it as part of a new product launch when I was in global marketing and the insights you clean, as part of the red teaming building block approach, were invaluable. Not just in terms of the product launch but in terms of team building across the regional business unit and global team. It was a great way to break down silos.
Amen to the pre-mortem. They can be invaluable in framing expectations. Another tip: The "5 Reasons" exercise, i.e. In 5 minutes, the team articulates 5 Reasons an idea/project/campaign will fail. Be specific about exactly how and why. Then... flip to 5 minutes spent articulating why the same idea will be unexpectedly successful—i.e. what *could* occur if luck intervenes? Then take a break. Maybe for 24 hours. When you return, you'll very likely see immediate ways to tune, de-risk, and enhance the idea/project/campaign.
Love it Tim! As a Red Team Thinking practitioner, the 5 Reasons exercise reminds me of The Swan Dive (https://www.redteamthinking.com/swan-dive). The other exercise that is really powerful, when you have more time and have gone through several iterations of pre-mortems, 5 reasons, swan dives, etc., is the Devil's Troika (https://www.redteamthinking.com/devils-troika). I ran a team through it as part of a new product launch when I was in global marketing and the insights you clean, as part of the red teaming building block approach, were invaluable. Not just in terms of the product launch but in terms of team building across the regional business unit and global team. It was a great way to break down silos.