The Pre-Mortem Technique to Get More Done At Work

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The Pre-Mortem Technique to Get More Done At Work

by Louise Beattie  - April 5, 2022

Reading Time:  minutes

It’s very easy to think that to grow our businesses or create success, we need to learn get better at marketing and sales or learn some new tactic.

I often find that this is not the case. The most important thing that we need to work on is ourselves.

One of the biggest challenges that I see most business owners struggling with is actually getting the things done that they need to do. That is to get more done at work.

 

I see it a lot with clients and this is an area of my own performance that I’m putting a lot of effort into working on and improving for myself.

That means that I am doing a lot of studying and practice/training in this area.

 

Three Main Skills

I’ve found is that there are three main skills we can develop if we want to improve in this area:

 

👉 knowing what the best thing we can invest our time in at any given moment is – the 20% that gives the 80% of our results.

👉 how to work effectively and efficiently with focus.

👉 anticipating the challenges or obstacles that will get in our way and putting in place a plan to deal with them.

 

Anticipating The Challenges

Taking that last one, there are two main techniques that I use for myself and with clients so that we can get more done at work.

One is called WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) a process developed by Gabriele Oettingen (I’ll share more about that later) and the other is Pre-Mortem.

I’ve just added Pre-Mortem to the monthly reviews that I do with my 1-1 and Focus-Action-Results clients and I suggest that you start to practice it to.

 

How To Use The Pre-Mortem Technique To Get More Done At Work

As part of their monthly check-in/reviews, I ask my clients to share the outcome (results) they are working towards and the process (actions) they are going to COMMIT to doing to achieve this.

Then I ask them:

“It’s the final day of the month. You haven’t honoured your commitments (actions you committed to). Knowing yourself, what caused the failure? What will you do to turn this into a Gift?”

That bit there… that’s the Pre-Mortem.

A simple, yet powerfully effective technique to get more done at work each month.

It’s very easy to think that to grow our businesses or create success, we need to learn get better at marketing and sales or learn some new tactic.

I often find that this is not the case. The most important thing that we need to work on is ourselves.

One of the biggest challenges that I see most business owners struggling with is actually getting the things done that they need to do. That is to get more done at work.

 

I see it a lot with clients and this is an area of my own performance that I’m putting a lot of effort into working on and improving for myself.

That means that I am doing a lot of studying and practice/training in this area.

 

Three Main Skills

I’ve found is that there are three main skills we can develop if we want to improve in this area:

 

👉 knowing what the best thing we can invest our time in at any given moment is – the 20% that gives the 80% of our results.

👉 how to work effectively and efficiently with focus.

👉 anticipating the challenges or obstacles that will get in our way and putting in place a plan to deal with them.

 

Anticipating The Challenges

Taking that last one, there are two main techniques that I use for myself and with clients so that we can get more done at work.

One is called WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) a process developed by Gabriele Oettingen (I’ll share more about that later) and the other is Pre-Mortem.

I’ve just added Pre-Mortem to the monthly reviews that I do with my 1-1 and Focus-Action-Results clients and I suggest that you start to practice it to.

 

How To Use The Pre-Mortem Technique To Get More Done At Work

As part of their monthly check-in/reviews, I ask my clients to share the outcome (results) they are working towards and the process (actions) they are going to COMMIT to doing to achieve this.

Then I ask them:

“It’s the final day of the month. You haven’t honoured your commitments (actions you committed to). Knowing yourself, what caused the failure? What will you do to turn this into a Gift?”

That bit there… that’s the Pre-Mortem.

A simple, yet powerfully effective technique to get more done at work each month.

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About 

Louise Beattie

Louise helps people enjoy the freedom of doing the work they love whilst sharing their experience to create value for others.

Simplify and accelerate the journey to an independent income and enjoy your ideal work-life blend without getting stuck on the treadmill of constant grind and hustle that gets you nowhere fast.

Creator, guide, Heroic Coach, and dog lover with an insatiable curiosity.

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