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This article is part of the America's Favorite Mom & Pop Shops series. Read more stories
Key Takeaways Post-mortems should happen after every major project, meeting, or incident, not just annually.
Create a safe, no-blame environment with clear roles, checklists and documented feedback.
Pre-mortems help anticipate challenges, improving planning, communication and future project outcomes.
It’s that time of year again — time for the holiday parties, the client gifts and the annual post-mortems where we analyze what went well over the course of 12 months, what failed, and what we can take into the new year. Every time this comes around again on the calendar, I always have one question: Why do we do this just once a year?
Annual traditions should be left to Christmas, Hanukkah and birthdays, not one of the most important parts of assessing your business and its strengths and weaknesses. While an annual recap is a necessity, I’d also go as far as to say that any time a big project wraps up, you should be doing a post-mortem. Any time an important meeting with stakeholders is held, you should do a post-mortem. Pitches and partnerships are also key times to be debriefing and putting together your formal thoughts.
There should also be consideration to incident post-mortems, where there’s a proper evaluation after something goes awry. Really, this formality should be a best practice for any occasion when considerable time and resources are involved.
Related: Employees are Turning the Tables — How Entrepreneurs Should Change Their Annual Employee Reviews
What a good post-mortem looks like
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