Introduction
After significant incidents or problems, post-mortem conversations allow you to explain what happened, demonstrate learning, rebuild confidence, and prevent future issues. Done well, they can actually strengthen trust. Done poorly, they reopen wounds or create new concerns.
Why This Skill Matters
No post-mortem leaves clients wondering if you learned anything or if it will happen again. Poor post-mortems sound defensive or create more anxiety. Good post-mortems demonstrate maturity, learning, and commitment to improvement—often strengthening relationships.
Core Principles
- Conduct blameless analysis internally first
- Focus on systems and processes, not individual blame
- Be transparent about what happened and why
- Own mistakes without excessive self-flagellation
- Emphasize prevention - What you're doing to prevent recurrence
- Invite their input - What would make them confident?
- Follow through on committed improvements
Good Examples
Post-mortem presentation:
"I want to walk you through what happened last week, what we learned, and what we're doing to prevent it.
What happened: [Clear timeline of events]
Root cause: [Honest assessment - not blaming individuals]
Immediate impact: [What was affected, for how long]
What we did well: [Positive aspects of response]
What we could have done better: [Honest self-assessment]
Prevention measures implemented:
- [Specific technical improvement]
- [Process change]
- [Monitoring enhancement]
Going forward: We've implemented all three measures and will review their effectiveness in 30 days. What questions or concerns do you have?"
Why It Works
Transparent, demonstrates learning, specific prevention, invites their input, shows maturity.
Tips
- Wait until emotions cool before holding post-mortem
- Prepare written summary to share
- Be honest without being defensive
- Focus on "what" and "how," not "who"
- Specific prevention measures, not vague promises
- Acknowledge impact on them
- Invite their questions and concerns
- Follow up on committed improvements
Connection to Other Skills
Combines delivering bad news, turning criticism into problem-solving, demonstrating learning, instilling confidence through honesty, following through on improvements, and building long-term relationships through adversity.
Action Items
- After any significant incident, schedule post-mortem
- Use blameless framework: timeline, root cause, prevention
- Prepare written summary before meeting
- Be specific about prevention measures
- Follow up 30 days later: "Here's what we implemented"
- Document lessons learned for future reference