Coaching practices for Wargaming Strategy
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Wargaming Strategy, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’ve planned this whole move as if our competitor will just sit there and take it
- We ran a real critique of the plan, found genuine holes, wrote them all down in a nice risk list
- My whole plan quietly rests on a handful of things I’ve just taken for granted
- Everything on my plate feels equally important, so I spread myself across all of it and make no real dent in any
- We did the exercise where we imagined it failing and listed why, but I have a nagging sense the most likely way this actually goes wrong is something nobody was willing to say out loud in the room
Practices that may help
- Simulate the adversary’s response to your move
Assign someone to genuinely think and plan as your competitor, not just describe them.
Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail - Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail
Red teaming is the practice of assigning someone — or a structured thinking process — to actively try to break your plan, identify its assumptions, find adversarial responses, and surface the failure modes that optimism and groupthink suppress. It originated in military and intelligence contexts and is now used in corporate strategy, security, and product development. The evidence for its effectiveness is largely organizational and practitioner-based rather than from controlled trials. - Require the plan to change, not just the risk register
A red team exercise that doesn’t change the plan has accomplished nothing.
Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail - WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan
WOOP — Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan — is Gabriele Oettingen’s science-based goal strategy: you picture the best outcome, then deliberately confront the inner obstacle in your way, and pair it with an if-then plan. Unlike pure positive thinking, WOOP combines mental contrasting with implementation intentions, and both halves have genuine support from randomized trials. - Map and stress-test your key assumptions
Before executing, list the assumptions the plan depends on — then ask which ones would kill it if wrong.
Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail - Define your Wildly Important Goal (WIG)
Choose the one goal where breakthrough results matter most — and focus there relentlessly.
The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) - Combine the pre-mortem with red team pressure
Run a pre-mortem and then ask the red team to find the failure mode the team missed.
Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail - Red-team your plan with a formal adversarial review
Assign someone the explicit role of finding every way your plan could be wrong or fail.
Confirmation Bias: Seeing What You Expect to See - Steelman the strategy opposite to the successful one
Before adopting a lesson from a success story, build the best possible case for the opposite approach.
Survivorship Bias: Learning from What You Can’t See - Run a mental simulation before committing to a course of action
Before acting on a recognized situation, mentally run through how your intended response plays out.
Recognition-Primed Decision Making
Related concerns
- Competitor Red Team
Assign someone to genuinely think and plan as your competitor, not just describe them.
Simulate the adversary’s response to your move
- How To Act On Red Team Findings
A red team exercise that doesn’t change the plan has accomplished nothing.
Require the plan to change, not just the risk register
- Pre Mortem Red Team
Run a pre-mortem and then ask the red team to find the failure mode the team missed.
Combine the pre-mortem with red team pressure
- Red Team Exercise
Red teaming is the practice of assigning someone — or a structured thinking process — to actively try to break your plan, identify its assumptions, find adversarial responses, and surface the failure modes that optimism and groupthink suppress. It originated in military and intelligence contexts and is now used in corporate strategy, security, and product development. The evidence for its effectiveness is largely organizational and practitioner-based rather than from controlled trials.
- Red Team Planning
Red teaming is the practice of assigning someone — or a structured thinking process — to actively try to break your plan, identify its assumptions, find adversarial responses, and surface the failure modes that optimism and groupthink suppress. It originated in military and intelligence contexts and is now used in corporate strategy, security, and product development. The evidence for its effectiveness is largely organizational and practitioner-based rather than from controlled trials.
- Red Teaming Stress Testing Plans Before They Fail After A Loss
Run a pre-mortem and then ask the red team to find the failure mode the team missed.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.