Coaching practices for How to Plan for Failure
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Plan for Failure, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- When I ask myself "what could go wrong with this plan," I either draw a blank or come up with one vague worry
- 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 all-in on this plan and can barely make myself imagine it going wrong
- My whole plan is a chain where every link has to hold
- After spending an hour imagining all the ways this could fail, I’ve talked myself right out of even starting
Practices that may help
- Run the basic pre-mortem
Assume the plan failed, then have everyone write down why.
The Pre-Mortem: Imagine It Already Failed - 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 pre-mortem from the outside-view perspective
Imagine the project has failed — then ask which base-rate failure type caused it.
The Outside View - Design decisions so they work even if some things go wrong
Ask: does this plan require everything to go right? If so, redesign it.
Margin of Safety - Pair the pre-mortem with a clear success vision
Balance failure analysis with an equally concrete picture of what success requires.
The Pre-Mortem: Imagine It Already Failed - Run a pre-mortem to interrupt forward narrative construction
Before committing to a plan, imagine it failed completely — then generate the most plausible story of why.
The Narrative Fallacy: Why We Can’t Stop Making Stories - 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 - 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 - Use reverse brainstorming to find failure modes
Ask "how would we make this fail?" instead of "how do we make this succeed?"
Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail - Rate each failure by likelihood and impact
Turn the raw failure list into a prioritized set of risks to mitigate.
The Pre-Mortem: Imagine It Already Failed
Related concerns
- Imagine Failure Before Starting
Balance failure analysis with an equally concrete picture of what success requires.
Pair the pre-mortem with a clear success vision
- Imagine The Plan Failed
Assume the plan failed, then have everyone write down why.
Run the basic pre-mortem
- Failure Modes Planning
Imagine the project has failed — then ask which base-rate failure type caused it.
Run a pre-mortem from the outside-view perspective
- Find Flaws In Your Plan
Before starting, assume the plan has already failed and ask why — then fix it now.
The premortem (imagine the project already failed)
- How To Avoid Project Failure
Imagine the project has already failed and work backwards to find why.
Run a premortem before committing
- How To Reduce Risk Of Failure
Turn the raw failure list into a prioritized set of risks to mitigate.
Rate each failure by likelihood and impact
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