F Murder Mary Exercise

A management technique for identifying potential cuts or improvements in a team/organization without creating immediate pressure or defensiveness.

Core Concept

• Create a safe space to identify potential cuts by making it hypothetical
• Remove the immediate pressure of action to get honest answers
• Help leaders overcome defensiveness about current status quo

How It Works

• Frame it as a hypothetical game similar to "F, Marry, Kill"
• Ask questions like:
  • If you had to cut 3 people from your team, who would they be?
  • Which 3 projects would you eliminate if forced?
  • Which clients would you drop if you had to choose?

Key Benefits

• Creates psychological safety to identify underperforming areas
• Plants seeds for future decisions without immediate pressure
• Once truth is spoken aloud, it becomes harder to unsee
• Helps identify:
  • Bottom performing team members
  • Least valuable projects
  • Problem clients
  • Areas needing improvement

Implementation Tips

• Make it clear no immediate action will be taken
• Do it as a group exercise
• Leaders should participate too
• Use specific numbers (like 3) to force choices
• Can be applied to:
  • Team members
  • Projects
  • Initiatives
  • Customers/clients
  • Any area needing evaluation

Expected Outcome

• People will naturally start addressing identified issues over time
• Helps team trim unnecessary elements without forced immediate decisions
• Creates awareness of potential improvements without defensive reactions