Avoiding Groupthink: Coming up with Better Team Decisions
Robert Cormack聽and 聽Gert Scholtz聽have inspired me but my response to them is too long for a buzz.聽
Groups and teams are increasingly important as organizations become increasingly complex. I agree with Robert and Gert. The way in which groups and teams are used in the decision-making process needs to be re-visited. Give the group a mission to come up with ideas and pick the best ones and groupthink is likely to set in.聽
Groups are notoriously bad at coming up with great ideas, making decisions, and generating breakthrough strategies. No one wants to stick his or her neck out or go against the tide.
A far better approach is to:
- Begin as a group and present the issue, problem or situation.
- Provide ample opportunity for questions to clarify the issue.
- Give individuals time to think and reflect. In fact, give individual quiet, reflection time before the group takes a break.
- Provide a structured format to present ideas.
- Send team members off to ponder over the situation individually, in pairs or trios.
- Return with ideas at a later date or in an hour if it is a retreat.
- Have each individual, pair or trio present ideas so all ideas are surfaced and heard.
- Form small breakout groups with no more than 6 members.
- Use a variety of tools to analyze ideas (i.e. idea maps, force fields, decision trees, storyboards). Do a thorough analysis.
- Ensure that you give everyone "air time" and don't just let a few extroverts dominate.
- Come back and present the analysis.
- Boil ideas down into 2 or 3 that have merit.
Anne Thornley-Brown is the President of Executive Oasis International, a Toronto team building and management consulting firm. She has designed and facilitated聽executive聽retreats, meetings, and聽team building for companies from 18 countries.聽
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Comments
Anne 馃悵 Thornley-Brown, MBA
7 years ago #8
That is why facilitators need to accommodate diverse learning styles. GIve everyone 10 - 15 minutes to begin thinking on their own then give people the option for the next hours of: - quiet reflection on their own - working in pairs - working in trios - working in a small group It is EXTREMELY important to ask each person to write on a card what their preference is and get them to hand it in at the end of the 10 - 15 minutes, otherwise, they will cave into the pressure of the herd and just go along with what the majority picks. Form the groups based on what group members wrote on the cards. Then take a 5 minute break so that those who want to work individually don't feel pressured. Another option is to add a question to your participant profile that is distributed before the executive retreat, team building, or meetings. Then you can pre-form the groups and assign breakout areas. Have 2 quiet reflection areas, one with music and one without.
Robert Cormack
7 years ago #7
Ali Anani
7 years ago #6
Anne 馃悵 Thornley-Brown, MBA
7 years ago #5
Ali Anani
7 years ago #4
Anne 馃悵 Thornley-Brown, MBA
7 years ago #3
Gert Scholtz
7 years ago #2
Anne 馃悵 Thornley-Brown, MBA
7 years ago #1
Yes that is important too as, otherwise, people just watch and see which way their manager or director is leaning and vote along with them. I'll do another post focusing on that important aspect some time.