Support Structure Pre-Mortem
Imagine your ways of working have quietly started to creak 18 months from now — then work back to the small step you'd take today.
What it is
The Support Structure Pre-Mortem is the core tool for the Supported principle. You start from a sentence:
"It is 18 months from now. Our work is still important, but our ways of working are creaking…"
Imagining the trouble as if it has already happened makes it far easier to spot — and to head off — than asking "what might go wrong?" in the abstract.
How to use it
Work the matrix across five areas of how you support each other:
- Roles & decision-making
- Reflection & supervision
- Communication & feedback
- Peer support
- Boundaries
For each, ask three questions:
- What might have gone wrong?
- What are the early signs you'd notice?
- What is one small step you could take in the next 3–6 months to make it less likely?
Why it matters
Being supported is about building trust, investing in people, and creating space for reflection and adaptation — rather than constant reaction. Trust erodes quietly: when people lack support, autonomy or clarity, and heavy workloads leave no time for the conversations that matter. The pre-mortem surfaces that erosion while there is still time to act.
A reflection
If something were quietly going wrong in how we support each other, where would the first sign show up — and would anyone say so?
Go deeper
By Organisational Resilience programme