Failure Proofing for Success!!
Follow these great steps to help failure-proof your team and be ready for any kind of breakdown!
List all the things that could go wrong!
- Use team brainstorming to think of all the things that might go wrong!
- Write everything down!
- Ask open ended questions to prompt ideas!
- Do not edit ideas at the time.
Determine how the potential problems are related to each other!
- Group the problems from the brainstorming e.g. props, people, equipment
Add new things to your list!
- Look for additions to your list
- Combine items the team thinks are really the same
- Do not delete anything unless the team is UNANIMOUS!
Rank the problems for the trouble they could cause!
- Rank the potential problems for the seriousness of the result
- Remind the team that small things can sometimes have disastrous results
- Review each group and make any adjustments
Think of all the ways to prevent the problems or minimize them!
- For each problem ask “if this happens we could….?”
- Discuss problems that cannot be prevented, e.g. weather, crowd noise, etc.
- Encourage your team to HAVE FUN, and be creative with their ideas… ad libbing always scores well!
Prepare a plan of action!
- Include who, what, when, where and how!
- Review the “disaster plan” periodically
- Cause ‘spontaneous’ mishaps during practice to allow your team to practice the plan! A good example is deliberately leaving the batteries out of the tape player, or knocking over a prop during a rehearsal.
DO IT!! As with everything in life, success comes with practice… Practice… PRACTICE!!!
