Group Thinking: An Organisational Pathology
Group thinking is an organisational pathology that can occur within any tightly knit group of people who depend on social cohesion to operate. It is a powerful force that keeps the group together but makes change and reaction to unknown very difficult. I've been there – have you?
Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy raise this challenge in their excellent book, "Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back." They describe group thinking as a mechanism that prevents alternative views from being included in the decision process. This makes groups blind to risks and opportunities beyond their consensual, agreed perspectives. They argue that it was a reason for the BP Deepwater Horizon oil well disaster in 2010, explaining how certain subtle mechanisms led to neglecting safety concerns.
Why is this dangerous?
We learn early in life that we can have greater success and more friends if we cooperate and agree with other people. This can make us effectively blind to ambiguity, underestimate potential threats, and feel more comfortable with the familiar, rather than challenge assumptions and the status quo of the group. A tightly knit group makes us feel really good and supported. This makes it even more difficult to challenge and risk the support of the group.
How to Broaden the Thinking?
One way to overcome those dangers and enable broader thinking can be building and deploying a team of professional sceptics.
This is what Red Team of the US ARMY attempted to achieve by launching a Red Team Program in 2004 at the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth. Essentially what they designed is a school of professional, military devil's advocates. Have you tried to be a devil advocate and challenge the status quo?
I got really fascinated with the idea of becoming a professional devil's advocate. As a finance professional I have been often placed in the devil's advocate seat and it is a difficult spot if your numbers indicate that group thinking is taking a wrong turn. I started to deep dive and explore the concept, and finally managed to get a copy of "The red team handbook - the army’s guide to making better decisions".
According to authors of the program: "Red Teaming creates and illuminates pathways to better decisions by employing structured techniques to identify hidden dangers, reveal unseen possibilities, and facilitate creative alternatives."
"It is, in essence, a form of risk management for the human brain".
The program is build on four main principles:
Self-awareness and Reflection. To make better decisions, we must first understand what beliefs guide and motivate us, why our unique experiences lead us to those beliefs, and why we make the decisions we do.
Groupthink Mitigation and Decision Support. People acting in groups can fall victim to unseen group dynamics that can derail the decision-making process.
Fostering Cultural Empathy.This helps us understand why different people and groups value different things, and why they approach issues and act in fundamentally different ways.
Applied Critical Thinking. This provides an improved understanding of our own decision making processes, as well as the ability to deconstruct arguments and better understand others.
Conclusion and follow-ups
Cognitive diversity is one of the fundamentals of resilient group. Strong groups are under risk of compromising this diversity and falling into the trap of group thinking.
Did you play devil's advocate? Did you feel support or rejection from the the group?
How can you make sure your team or organisation does not fall into this trap?
Do you know any other strategies to combat group thinking?
References
Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back - a book about resilience, which brings forward Red Team concept as a resilience enhancing mechanism
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