Groupthink: The Danger of Organizational Purpose
Groupthink: Going Along to Get Along
In 2010, British-American leadership expert Simon Sinek rocked the world with his TED talk about a golden circle and the question ‘Why?’ and in the years that followed, ‘purpose’ became the management buzzword of the decade. It has been used in the titles of well over 400 business and leadership books, as well as thousands of articles. Keeping in line with the trend, even our own Management 3.0 Foundation workshop contains a ‘Meaning and Purpose’ module.
This makes perfect sense, of course. Most people nowadays — especially, but certainly not only, Millennials — aren’t satisfied with just working for a paycheck, they want to make a difference. In response to this, many organizations have made the effort to define their purpose. And with good reason, organizations with a clear purpose will attract employees who believe in that same purpose and thus align better with the organizational culture. As a result they will work harder and more effectively and because of that the organization will make more money. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But why then the title of this article, The Danger of Organizational Purpose.
Well, simply put, great as it all may sound, employees who can find themselves in the organizational purpose are likely to agree on other matters as well and this might lead to groupthink. This is where the danger of purpose lies, groupthink and a stifling of critical thinking and creativity. So the real question here is not whether organizations should move away from finding their ‘why’ but how they should avoid groupthink.
Irving Janis, a social psychologist at Yale University who pioneered the research on groupthink, defined it as the situation in which “a cohesive team experiences tremendous pressures for conformity, such that they will strive for unanimity at the expense of critical thinking.” In other words, groupthink is team members going along to get along.
An essential first step in avoiding groupthink is being able to recognize its presence in a team and take action before it is too late. In his research, Janis identified three key warning signs of teams suffering from groupthink.
Groupthink Warning Signs
(1) Illusions of Invulnerability
Teams suffering from groupthink tend to be overoptimistic of their abilities to succeed and are willing to take irresponsible risks to achieve their objectives. In addition to this, team members often ignore the consequences of their actions.
(2) Closed-Mindedness
Groupthink encourages the belief in a number of cognitive biases which will rationalize warnings that might challenge the group’s assumptions. Closed-mindedness also leads to team members stereotyping those who are opposed to the team as weak, evil, biased, spiteful or stupid.
(3) Pressures toward Uniformity
Members of a team suffering from groupthink tend to self-censor ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus which in itself creates an Illusion of unanimity among the team as this silence is viewed as agreement. In case certain team members won’t keep quiet and put forth their own ideas, other members of the team are likely to pressure them into conformity.
An example of groupthink, used by Janis to formulate his theory, is the CIA-sponsored invasion of the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, in which the team advising President Kennedy clearly suffered from groupthink. The group felt that the operation couldn’t fail and rationalized away any disconfirming data and discounted warnings. They also stereotyped Castro and the Cubans by failing to question the CIA about its many false assumptions, including the ineffectiveness of Castro’s air force, the weakness of Castro’s army, and the inability of Castro to quell internal uprisings. When certain members of Kennedy’s team objected to the plan, the team as a whole ignored these objections and kept believing in the infallibility of their plan. Eventually the non-conforming team members self-censored themselves. As a result of this groupthink, the operation was poorly executed and the invading force was defeated by Castro within just three days.
Preventing Groupthink
Better than trying to ‘fix’ a team suffering from groupthink would, of course, be preventing the situation all together. Based on the research of Janis, it could be argued that managers should take the following eight steps to avoid groupthink within their teams:
(1) Assign a ‘Challenger’
Managers should assign the role of ‘Challenger’ (see Roles in a Creative Team) to a team member who can thus question effectiveness and freely air objections and doubts;
(2) Curb Your Enthusiasm
Managers should not express their own opinions or ideas when assigning a task to the team;
(3) Limit Your Visibility
Managers should refrain from attending (most of the) team meetings in order to avoid unintentionally influencing the outcomes.
(4) Encourage Diversity
The organization should form several independent teams, working on the same task to create a diversity of perspectives;
(5) Defer Judgement
All proposed alternatives to a proposed solution should be examined, without bias;
(6) Encourage Discussion
Team members should be encouraged to discuss the team’s ideas with trusted people outside of the team;
(57) Invite Outside Opinions
The team should invite outside experts into its meetings and team members should be allowed to question these outside experts;
(8) Assign a ‘Thinker’
Managers should assign the role of ‘Thinker’ to a team member who will observe the team, weigh up the teamwork and suggest improvements. Ideally, this Thinker observes the team as they work and leads an evaluation when the task has been completed.
Closely related to the Bay of Pigs example is that of the Cuban Missile Crisis. After the Bay of Pigs invasion fiasco, President Kennedy sought to avoid a similar groupthink situation during this crisis. For this reason, during meetings, he invited outside experts to share their viewpoints, and allowed group members to question them carefully. He also encouraged group members to discuss possible solutions with trusted members within their separate departments, and he even divided the group up into various sub-groups, to partially break the group cohesion. Finally, Kennedy decided to be deliberately absent from the meetings to avoid pressing his own opinion. History shows us that the Cuban Missile Crisis was handled much better than the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Of course, following these eight steps isn’t a guarantee that a team won’t fall victim to groupthink. But, as with anything concerned with Strategic, Creativeor Design Thinking, by acknowledging the issue of groupthink, experimenting with the proposed prevention measures and keeping an open mind, you might just put yourself on the right path.
[T]here you are.
References:
Blount, S. and Leinwand, P. (2019). Why Are We Here? [Online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2019/11/why-are-we-here [Accessed 15 Jan. 2020].
Sinek, S. (2010). How great leaders inspire action [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4
Roberto, M. A. (2009) Groupthink — Thinking or Conforming? On The Art of Critical Decision Making [Mp3 Lecture Series] . The Teaching Company. https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/art-of-critical-decision-making.html
Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of Groupthink: a Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
