Prevent Groupthink
Groupthink happens when a group is so heavily indebted to reaching consensus and being affable with one another that they rush into a poor decision. When groupthink takes over, the "yes" people are dominant and the results achieved in such a team can be watery, unsustainable and poorly tested. When you're working hard to reach a consensus, it can be easy to forget that conflict can be a positive and outcome-supportive dynamic.
Steps
- Get a good team together. A good team will utilize a range of personalities and perspectives. There are such management tools as those developed by Dr Meredith Belbin, who found that there is a need to have 8-9 types of team players to extract a good outcome from a meeting:
- Plant - creative, imaginative, unorthodox team-member who solves difficult problems
- Resource Investigator - the networker for the group, highly driven to make connections with people
- Chairman/Coordinator - ensures that all members of the team are able to contribute to discussions and decisions of the team
- Shaper - loves a challenge and thrives on pressure
- Monitor-Evaluator - tries to see all options and judge accurately and objectively
- Team Worker - maintains positive interpersonal relationships within the team
- Company Worker/Implementer - practical thinker who can create systems and processes that will produce what the team wants
- Completer Finisher - the detail person within the team
- Specialist - brings 'specialist' knowledge to the team.
- Treat conflict as an essential part of a solid outcome. Without conflict, life would be dull. Think of a novel you have enjoyed that lacked conflict - you probably can't. Conflict is in every day - at the bus-stop, in movies, in books, at work, in the school corridor. Only we tend to not recognize that conflict is a way in which we work through all sides of the issue and come out with a result that has been tested by all and is therefore likely to be more robust. Provided you have a sound chair in the role of controlling conflict, allow it to take its course during team sessions.
- Let members of the group know that no perspective, no question and no suggestion is a dumb one or a wrong one. Set the rules on this at the outset and make it known that everybody's opinion counts and that everyone is free to think as they wish and to state what they wish, provided it is not offensive, insulting or demeaning.
- Allow time for making decisions as a team. Making a decision quickly in a team is often a bad idea because the idea is not tested and tossed around. If you see that this is happening, suggest a suspension of the meeting and ask members to return to it later.
- Bring in the devil's advocate. If you can't assemble a team of differing personality types (as suggested above under step one), get yourself a conflict creator in the form of a good devil's advocate. This person is not there to undermine but to create different perspectives that rock the group's reality. Force the group to address the different perspectives being raised. It will both slow down the decision-making process and it will enlighten the like-thinking members as to other ways of doing whatever it is. At the very least, it puts them all on alert that resistance is possible outside of their cozy environment.
- Avoid adding judgments or desired outcomes. If you are a manager or the task-setter, do not make your opinions or ideas known to the group. Instead, set the task needing to be addressed and act as if you're as clueless as anyone else. Likely you have some ideas but likely also that you will be challenged in any pre-conceived notions when some good ideas start rolling out of the group.
- Bring in a specialist. This is also Dr Meredith Belbin's suggestion. There should be someone who knows the subject-matter inside out. This person can swat wrongheaded ideas and can elucidate the facts. However, this person should not add their opinion, just stick to the facts and factual possibilities.
- Don't surround yourself by yes people. If you employ only people like you, you will have clones around you. That is not an ideal environment for any work place or volunteer project. The only good team is a team with a wide range of experiences and values to add to the discussions.
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Sources and Citations
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_Belbin Meredith Belbin
