Coaching practices for How to Anticipate Problems
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Anticipate Problems, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m about to commit to this plan and on paper it looks solid, but a quiet part of me suspects I’m too sold on it to see the holes
- I’m about to commit to this timeline and on paper it all looks fine, but I have a nagging feeling I’m glossing over the ways it could go sideways because admitting them now feels like talking myself out of it before I’ve even started.
- When I ask myself "what could go wrong with this plan," I either draw a blank or come up with one vague worry
- Every time something goes wrong it knocks me flat, even though in hindsight it was completely predictable
- I’m about to commit real time and money to this plan, and it looks solid
Practices that may help
- The premortem (imagine the project already failed)
Before starting, assume the plan has already failed and ask why — then fix it now.
Premeditatio Malorum, in Depth - Run a premortem before committing
Imagine the project has already failed and work backwards to find why.
The Planning Fallacy — Why Your Estimates Are Always Wrong - Run the basic pre-mortem
Assume the plan failed, then have everyone write down why.
The Pre-Mortem: Imagine It Already Failed - Anticipate the obstacle before it arrives
Rehearse what could go wrong so the setback finds you prepared, not ambushed.
The Obstacle Is the Way, in Practice - Run a pre-mortem before committing to a plan
Imagine the plan has already failed and ask what went wrong.
Confirmation Bias: Seeing What You Expect to See - Plan for obstacles with coping plans
Anticipate the specific obstacles most likely to block your plan and pre-decide your response to each.
Action Planning - Run a pre-mortem before you start
Before a project begins, ask: assume it failed — what went wrong?
Hindsight Bias: Why Everything Seems Obvious in Retrospect - Describe the difficult situation specifically and realistically
Spell out the scenario you are anticipating — who, what, when — without minimizing or catastrophizing.
Cope Ahead: DBT’s Method for Preparing for Difficult Situations - Worst-case rehearsal (take the shock out)
Calmly rehearse a likely setback in advance so it arrives expected, not as an ambush.
Premeditatio Malorum, in Depth - Run a premortem before committing
Imagine the decision has already failed — then ask why.
Thinking in Bets
Related concerns
- Anticipate Obstacles In Advance
Rehearse what could go wrong so the setback finds you prepared, not ambushed.
Anticipate the obstacle before it arrives
- Imagine Project Failed
A pre-mortem, developed by psychologist Gary Klein, has a team imagine that a plan has already failed and then work backward to explain why — before any work begins. The technique exploits "prospective hindsight": research found that imagining an outcome as a certainty makes people generate more, and more specific, reasons for it, surfacing risks that ordinary risk assessment misses.
- Prospective Hindsight Planning
Imagine the project has already failed and work backwards to find why.
Run a premortem before committing
- Thinking In Bets Premortem
Imagine the decision has already failed — then ask why.
- When Behavioral Activation Behavioral Experiments Ba
Make a specific prediction ("going out will feel terrible") and test it with the actual behavior.
Behavioral experiments: test depressive predictions with action
- When Planning Fallacy Premortem Analysis
Imagine the project has already failed and work backwards to find why.
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