Pre-Mortems in Kitchens
Apologies in advance, but we’re gonna get a bit morbid today.
This one goes out to the real worry-warts.
The folks that lose sleep over potential hypotheticals, unforeseen issues and the endless list of “what-if’s”.
Lucky for us, there are people who manage way more risk than we do (billions of dollars, geopolitical threats, natural disasters) and they’ve come up with a pretty handy practice that you can use in your own work life: it’s called the pre-mortem.
What is a Pre-Mortem?
This is in contrast to a post-mortem: the list of things that caused a death to happen.
As the language implies, a “post” mortem is done after the fact, but what if you still made a list, you just did it before the event happens?
A pre-mortem is an exercise where team members meet before a project to discuss risks that could cause the project to fail.
Try this next time you have a project coming up that you’re nervous about:
Maybe the restaurant’s investor is hosting a buy-out and you’ve never done an event this big before
A big off-site catering contract you’re getting ready to execute
You have an important job interview that’s about to happen
A critic is coming into the restaurant for the first time
You’re about to host your first pop up in a new space
Ask yourself: what would cause this to proverbially “die” (AKA: fail)? What are the potential causes?
If it’s helpful to frame this…picture you from the future coming back and telling the story about why the project failed. What might they say?
We can combine this with the mental model of: Avoiding Stupidity is Easier than Seeking Brilliance and you’ve got a pretty potent plan for how to make sure things go your way.
Some pre-mortem examples
If it’s a job interview, your pre-mortem might look like:
“I showed up 10 minutes late to the interview, and they immediately cancelled the interview”
“They asked me a question about what I was excited about in the restaurant and I couldn’t come up with anything on-the-fly so they declined me right on the spot”
“My knives were dull when they gave me a prep project to do, which caused the chef to doubt my attention to detail and willingness to show up to work prepared”
For our buy-out example:
“We ran out of serving vessels for the snacks and everyone had to wait for things to be re-washed”
“Our investor wanted Chef to be able to talk to guests, but she was bogged down in plating the first course”
“We went down when it came time to do the desserts because our signature dessert doesn’t scale to that many guests in the space that we have”
Listen, this might feel really negative in the moment 😰
It’s not fun to put this kind of list together. But neither is losing sleep over this type of rumination.
I let out a sigh of relief after doing this type of exercise, because now that it’s all out in the open, we can invert each of these dot points.
Let’s try this inverted thinking with our buy-out example so that we can do the opposite of our potential problems:
“We’ll get compostable vessels to serve snacks on - I can order a case of 500, and that’ll make us super comfortable for the number of guests that are coming.”
“Chef can give a demo to Corey and Amanda on the first course plate up this week, so that they know exactly what to do for the buy-out next week. That way, if chef gets called away during the event, service can still keep moving and our investor will be happy to have guests get face-time with chef.”
“We’ll take 3 components from our signature dessert and make it into a pre-dessert. This way, we can serve a mini version of it, where all guests can taste it, but we can do an easier-to-execute plated dessert for the actual menu.”
Just so we’re clear, notice that none of these are “new” ideas or “boundary pushing” plans. You’re just forecasting the highest likelihood cause of failure and mitigating it.
Also...notice that I presented action items with each of the inversions - this isn’t just the “duh” advice of “just don’t let that happen”. How can you virtually guarantee that it won’t happen?
Experiment this week
Here’s how you can use this:
Frame the pre-mortem. How can you ask the right questions so that you land on responses that you can use productively? This might be a “you from the future” conversation, pretending to write a disheartening email/text to your co-worker (hey Corey…this didn’t go well, and here’s why…), or a note in your phone with prompts for yourself.
Play out the scenario and add different perspectives. What are realistic issues that might happen? If you do this with your team, maybe each team member gets to contribute 2 reasons. This helps avoid the “unrealistic ones” like “the restaurant burns down”. Of course that could happen, but it’s not really that actionable for the project we have coming up.
Invert the dot points. If we KNEW the contents of this list happened, how would we prevent it, given the position we’re in now?
I wish we all had the capacity to do this type of work for every project in our lives, but for more everyday scenarios, your mileage may vary.
In Summary
Facing potential project failures head-on with a pre-mortem analysis can transform anxiety into action.
By anticipating and inverting possible pitfalls, you create proactive solutions, ensuring smoother execution.
This strategy isn't about pessimism but preparation, turning "what-ifs" into structured plans for success.
Whether it's a major event or an important meeting, a pre-mortem can be the key to navigating challenges with confidence and clarity.
However, for new & novel initiatives, this can be an incredibly valuable tool behind the glass for you to break into and use. Hope this helps!
If you want a proven system for how to prepare, perform and problem-solve in professional kitchens, check out Total Station Domination!