Coaching practices for I'm Excited About This Plan and So Committed to it That I Can't Honestly See What Might Sink it Every Time I Try to List the Risks Beforehand My Optimism Just Airbrushes the Uncomfortable Ones Away Before I Can Name Them
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I'm Excited About This Plan and So Committed to it That I Can't Honestly See What Might Sink it Every Time I Try to List the Risks Beforehand My Optimism Just Airbrushes the Uncomfortable Ones Away Before I Can Name Them, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m excited about this plan and so committed to it that I can’t honestly see what might sink it
- 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 real time and money to this plan, and it looks solid
- 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 I can feel how badly I want it to work
Practices that may help
- Run a premortem before committing
Imagine the decision has already failed — then ask why.
Thinking in Bets - 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 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 the basic pre-mortem
Assume the plan failed, then have everyone write down why.
The Pre-Mortem: Imagine It Already Failed - Steelman objections to your own plans
Before committing to a plan, state the strongest case against it in its most compelling form.
Steelmanning - 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 - 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 premortem before committing
Imagine the project has already failed and work backwards to find why.
The Planning Fallacy — Why Your Estimates Are Always Wrong - 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 - Name the assumptions that must hold for the plan to work
Every plan rests on assumptions — list them and ask how likely each one is.
Margin of Safety
Related concerns
- When Confirmation Bias Pre Mortem For Plans
Imagine the plan has already failed and ask what went wrong.
Run a pre-mortem before committing to a plan
- When Narrative Fallacy Pre Mortem Anti Narrative
Before committing to a plan, imagine it failed completely — then generate the most plausible story of why.
Run a pre-mortem to interrupt forward narrative construction
- When Pre Mortem Run The Premortem
Assume the plan failed, then have everyone write down why.
Run the basic pre-mortem
- 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 Plan For Failure
Assume the plan failed, then have everyone write down why.
- 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
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