Can You Prevent Group Conformity? Maybe. Groupthink is a powerful but unseen force in organizations. In our example, you were wise to consider how you would be perceived by the group and it probably didn’t matter that you went along with the majority. But what if the outcome had been really important? Or if you were sure you had the right answer? How could you discourage conformity to open up the discussion? Ways to handle the most co...
How Groupthink Can Get You In the last post, you wanted to generate out-of-the-box ideas but were shot down. You left the meeting feeling vaguely bad, perhaps because your idea never got off the ground. Perhaps, but a much more powerful force had probably doomed your idea from the start: Groupthink. What is groupthink? Groupthink is the tendency of a group to hold the same opinions and views. Sometimes that’s good. For something strai...
Dysfunctional Decision-making—Think Yes, Say No Everybody wants to make good decisions but there can be situations where that’s not possible. Indeed, the way a conclusion is reached can be completely dysfunctional. Often due to a group falling prey to groupthink. Let’s work through an example. You work in a large document shredding company. The company needs a new strategic direction because businesses now post confidential doc...
Your group didn’t get a report in on time and you need to figure out what caused the lack of collaboration. ...
In the last post, you returned after a week off to find that an important report hadn’t gone out....
