5 key ways leaders can avoid Groupthink

Was that Groupthink I just witnessed? If not in your executive team, what about the teams that massage information on the way to the executive? Each is a question you may have asked yourself. Rightfully so given the broad reach of Groupthink due to its widely recognised underlying causes.

Signs of Groupthink 

The original concept of Groupthink was developed in the early 1970s by Irving Janis in an attempt to understand high-profile decisions in the previous decade that, with the benefit of hindsight, were poor because they ignored the facts. Examples included decisions leading to the escalation of the Vietnam War and to the Bay of Pigs military action in Cuba. In a 1973 article, Janis outlines eight main symptoms of Groupthink:

An illusion of invulnerability, leading to extreme risk taking.
Collective efforts to rationalise, leading to ignoring warning signs.
Belief in their own morality, leading to ignoring ethical or moral consequences.
Stereotyped views of rivals, leading to disdaining dialogue with them and/or underestimating them.
Peer pressure to remain loyal, leading to dissenters being silenced.
Self-censorship, leading to unvoiced doubts and counterarguments.
A shared illusion of unanimity, leading to false assumptions that silence means consent.
Self-appointed ‘mindguards’, leading to blocking of adverse information reaching the group.

Any one of them can lead to poor outcomes; collectively, they can result in disaster. However, the books Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter (2014), by Cass R. Sunstein and Reid Hastie and Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment (2021) by Daniel Kahneman, Oliver Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein demonstrate there are a myriad of causes of poor group decisions.

Every team, especially executive teams, can benefit from a few simple hacks to reduce the chances of making bad decisions due to unseen or hidden causes.

1. Healthy Skepticism
   Two articles in a recent online publication are a perfect example of the need for scepticism when presented with the facts. One article criticised the PGA golf tour for losing one million viewers, a third of last year’s audience, during the closing stages of a tournament. The article praised the LIV golf tour, quoting fans from social media who mentioned they switched to watch a play-off between Brooks Koepka and John Rahm, two of the world’s best golfers.

   In the same publication was an article criticising LIV golf for viewer numbers for that same tournament. They reported viewer numbers were around 150,000 and compared that to 250,000 viewers of a pickleball tournament!

   Be careful of the facts presented!

2. Question the Question
   Teams, in particular, teams focused on moving fast, are prone to moving too swiftly to implementation without sufficient clarification of the options being considered. However, a harder to see, yet potentially much more significant issue is that sometimes the team is answering the wrong question.

   Consider the drivers of how the team arrived at this deliberation and ask, “Are we answering the right question?”

3. Avoid Anchoring
   Teams have a tendency to anchor to the first idea put forward, in particular if it is the CEO that opens with their views.

   Immediately ask for someone to put forward an alternative view.

4. Resolve Conflict
   As conflict builds, team members have a tendency to become stubborn and their minds become impenetrable to new information.

   Team leaders need to be good at participating in a discussion while simultaneously sitting back and observing team members.

   Engage a facilitator for your most important team discussions.

5. Ask for More
   Whether because of a personal agenda, personal risk or lack of confidence, some team members will fail to offer up a key piece of information that may have a dramatic outcome on a decision. Keep asking questions until all team members have made a significant contribution.

By recognising factors influencing team decision making, promoting diverse perspectives, and fostering critical thinking, CEOs can guide their teams toward innovative solutions and calculated risks, driving performance to exceed ever-increasing expectations.

Written by Bryan Whitefield.

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