Break free from groupthink
Businesses suffer from groupthink – even when they claim to embrace disagreement and dissent. We are frequently very hostile towards different perspectives and the people who hold them.
The human condition is wired for agreement and conformity. We all have a deep-seated desire to fit in – even those, and sometimes especially those, who profess how much they seek to stand out.
We care about what other group members think about us. A lot.
This makes groupthink a natural consequence of group decision-making. The quest for harmony in a group impedes its cognitive processes and culminates in suboptimal decision-making. Better choices are ruled out too quickly because of the urge to reach agreement.
Well-functioning organisations and societies embrace a wide range of perspectives. Some of the most profound advances in knowledge have come from those who were thought to have extreme, even crazy, views at the time. Consider the monumental shifts brought by outliers like Galileo and Einstein. They remind us that human knowledge does not advance linearly, and sometimes a paradigm changes dramatically.
Businesses must EMBRACE provocation to flourish.
