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| Criterion |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Business Strategy McKinsey 7S |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Facilitation Alignment Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. | McKinsey 7S checks whether Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared Values, Skills, Style, and Staff fit together. Organizational misalignments become visible across multiple levers as a result. | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20–45 min | 2-4 h | 45-90 min | 1-2 h |
Participantsdifferent | Small cross-functional group | 3-12 | 2-8 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | 7S Assessment, Alignment Gaps, Change Actions | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | OrganizationStrategyAlignmentChange | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation |