| |
|
Top Tips - June
2008
Teams: 8 things that can go wrong:
Nº 7: GroupThink:
Definition: The tendency of members of a committee, profession,
etc. to conform to those opinions or feelings prevailing in their
group.
Irving Janis was an expert on this subject. He thought that
decision making groups are not necessarily condemned to
GroupThink. He claimed that there are several ways to prevent it.
Here are five ways of preventing groupthink, according to Janis:
- Leaders should assign each member the role of “critical evaluator”. This allows
each member to freely express objections and doubts.
- Superiors should not express an opinion when assigning a task to a group.
The organization should set up several independent groups, working on the same
problem.
- All effective alternatives should be examined.
Each member should discuss the group's ideas with trusted people outside of the
group.
- The group should invite outside experts into meetings. Group members should be
allowed to discuss with and question the outside experts.
- At least one group member should be assigned the role of 'Devil's Advocate'. This
should be a different person for each meeting.
By following these guidelines, GroupThink can be avoided. After
the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961, John F. Kennedy avoided groupthink
during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a short time later.
During meetings, he invited outside experts to share their
viewpoints, and allowed group members to question them carefully.
He also encouraged group members to discuss possible solutions
with trusted members within their separate departments. He even
divided the group up into various sub-groups, in order to
partially break the group cohesion. JFK was deliberately absent
from the meetings, so as to avoid pressing his own opinion.
Ultimately, the Cuban missile crisis was resolved peacefully,
thanks in part to these measures.
How do you know that your group is already into a GroupThink mode
of functioning? Here are 8 symptoms to look out for:
- Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risktaking.
- Rationalising warnings that might challenge the group's assumptions.
- Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions.
- Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, disfigured, impotent, or stupid.
- Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, expressed obliquely in terms of "disloyalty".
- Self censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus.
- Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement.
- Mindguards — self-appointed members who protect the group from dissenting information.
Return to the Newsletter
Return the archive of Lydia's Top Tips
Return the Community homepage
|
|
|
