Groupthink and effective collaboration
- By Eugene Clark
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 19, 2016
People in all professions must increasingly work in groups and skills of effective group work should be part of everyone's education, especially in the professions.
While group decision making can be effective it is also susceptible to groupthink, an example illustrated by the recent U.K. Report on the Iraq invasion and the flawed groupthink derived decision that there were weapons of mass destruction being hidden there.
There are many possible causes leading to groupthink. Ironically, the danger of a group that is highly cohesive is that it is also prone to be less critical and circumspect than it should be. Groups that are isolated or insulated or lacking in diversity are also more prone to groupthink. Strong external threats or excessive internal control or corruption may also lead to groupthink and the all too quick, but false, solution or causal finding. The absence of internal processes designed to elicit frank and fearless advice is another potential cause.
It was Irving Janis who coined the term "groupthink" and described eight symptoms of group think. These included:
1. An illusion of invulnerability leading to unjustified optimism and unreasonable risk taking.
2. A belief, unquestioned, of the moral correctness of the group leading to a failure to adequately and accurately examine consequences.
3. A failure to listen to warnings and instead rationalizing them and too easily dismissing them.
4. A tendency to stereotype as evil, misinformed, naïve or biased, those who objected to the decision to invade.
5. Self-censorship by participants in the group.
6. Various pressures put on group members to confirm to the majority decision.
7. The illusion of unanimity emanating from a tendency to assume that silence meant agreement.
8. Members of the group acting as shields, preventing the group from receiving information that was contrary to the majority view.
So, what are some of the strategies to avoid groupthink? These include:
1. Selection procedures that ensure that group membership is diverse.
2. Steps taken to consult stakeholders and others and to report back to the group.
3. Processes that ensure that every member of the group is heard from and that the group benefits from the independent judgements of its members.
4. Members must report their honest, frank and sincere independent judgments.
5. The group should check perceptions with key people, e.g. experts who are outside the group.
6. One or more members of the group might be assigned the role of devil's advocate to ensure that divergent views are considered.
7. The group leader must have a mechanism or process to aggregate the private judgments of each individual.
At the end of the day, organizations and groups are the result of the product of the decisions, the choices, they make. The goal is, as far as possible, to make the best possible decisions. When this happens, there is great power in the collaborative to come to the best decision. To do this, however, requires an awareness of the dangers of groupthink and to have in place the robust processes to prevent it and measures to deal with it when it occurs.
At a time of rapid change, while deeply valuing the importance of collaboration, we also need to cherish and listen appropriately to those individuals who have the vision to look into the future and light the way for the rest of society.
As poet Robert Frost wrote:
"...So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid"
Eugene Clark is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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