Group Think Doesn’t Always Work
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 28, 2008
Everyone has heard the phrase "Two heads are better than one". I'm going to say that, when it comes to being a manager or leader, this isn't always the case.
One of the problems we have with government is that, sometimes, there's too many people with too many differing opinions to get anything done. Not only that, but the minority party rarely gets heard at all, and even if they have good ideas, sometimes the other party won't even allow the recommendation to come to the floor, for fear of allowing someone from the other party to look good.
I have conducted many business meetings in my day, and I learned fairly early on that, though I wanted everyone to participate in the process, in the end I was going to have to be the one to make the ultimate decision. The hope is that, when multiple people give you input on a topic, that you'll be able to take the good ideas and parse them together to do something good for everyone. But sometimes, you won't hear anything that you feel is as good as what you are already thinking, and in that case you just might have to go with your first instinct. One would hope, however, that you at least understand the position everyone else is taking, whether you agree with them or not.
And, of course, there are those times when group think actually agrees on something that turns out to be a bad idea, and in those cases one can usually imagine that it was the concept that got everyone on the same page, and not the fact that it was a good idea. If there's no one with any real knowledge of an issue, then no matter how many ideas are thrown out, most of them aren't going to be any good. To whit, I share the video below:
I add two things here. One, though I'd have thought this was a terrible idea, the male in me would have probably wanted to see it. Two, I'm betting there wasn't a single woman on the panel that okayed this; if there was, I bet it never would have gone through.
My brother and I are pretty vocal when we attend meetings hosted by the company we work for, especially when it involves our livelihood. The thing is that it always looks like we are alone in our views until the end of the meeting when people come up to us saying how they agreed with everything we were saying. We told them that it was too bad they didn’t say something during the meeting to support our case as now it just looks like we’re the only ones complaining.
I’ve found that a lot of the time people are scared to commit an opinion just in case they are ridiculed. It’s true that unless you have people supplying different points of views its hard to formulate an accurate decision.
Sire´s last blog post..Blond Bombshell Finds The True Worth Of Vanity
Thanks for sharing, Sire. I agree with you here, which is why I always tried to solicit everyone’s opinion on something. I didn’t always get it, but I’m lucky in that I always at least had an opinion of my own going in, just in case.
As it works out the big boys didn’t care what we thought anyway. I think that they thought if that showed they were interested in our affairs it would make us feel better. Morons.
Sire´s last blog post..Blond Bombshell Finds The True Worth Of Vanity
You and your brother actually own your own business, though, right Sire? And I assume you’re part of a cooperative of some sort? It’s got to be tough dealing with corporate managers who don’t listen, but at least you put it out there, and I hope you document it so that, when things go wrongly, you can pull out your records and show them your recommendations that might have worked.
Yep. We are a Franchise which is part of a cooperative which has just been bought out by a multi-national company, so at the moment everything is up in the air and we are not sure where we stand.
Sire´s last blog post..Blond Bombshell Finds The True Worth Of Vanity
That’s got to be pretty scary. I hope it resolves itself fairly.
By the way, what did you think of the video?
It was pretty amazing. It probably would have been better to call the Japanese who could have used it for their experiments. Personally, I would have dragged it out to sea where the real scavengers could have had a feast. Sort of feel sorry for the guy with the car but seeing everybody running from the whale blubber would have been funny.
Sire´s last blog post..Blond Bombshell Finds The True Worth Of Vanity
I don’t know that dragging it back out to sea would have helped the community much either, since it was a beach they were hoping to continue using. I think the best option was to cut it up and move it out; what they did closed that beach for a very, very long time.
As a journalist who sat in thousands of editorial meetings over the years, I can tell you the only voice that mattered in the end was the New Director’s and 99.9 percent of the time it was a MALE. It’s the person in the position of power who controls everyone else’s thinking. I will say though I was pretty persuasive in getting my points across from time to time because I’m not one to back down if I know I’m right. Some women would rather go along with the plan than have to put up a fight.
Beverly Mahone´s last blog post..Your Children, Their Teachers and Social Networking
It’s not usually the best way to go, Beverly, but sometimes, if you’re in the lead spot, you have to be ready to make the decision you feel is the right one, especially if what you’re getting from everyone else is pretty bad, or uninformed. It’s the other side of good leadership that doesn’t get as much press.
Not really, not if you drag it out to sea and then blow it up.
First of all this is a hilarious video. I think you’re right in that groupthink isn’t always the best. But I also think if you want others to support whatever decision you’re going with wouldn’t it be just as well to throw your original idea which you’re leaning out there and demostrate to the group why you’re choosing that. Then after listening to others concerns explain why you’re making the decision that you’re going with. You’re certainly right there are times when someone just has to make a call and people won’t always agree. I think the advantage of having other people’s perspectives is usually beneficial.
Hi Jeff. Yes, you have to be ready to share your thoughts and ideas with everyone else, but I tend to change up, sometimes throwing my idea out first, other times waiting to see what others have to say about an idea before offering my thoughts. One has to be flexible enough to be able to change up when needed.
By the way, don’t you wish you’d been in that meeting when blowing up the whale came up?
Totally agree. I know I find it helpful when my leaders do both and when I’m the leader in a group I find it helpful to do both. I would have loved to have been in the wahle meeting. Although I might not have vetoed the idea simply to watch it happen.
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I’m not going to lie; I’d have probably wanted to see it, but I know I’d have said it wasn’t a bad idea. I just might not have said it all that loudly; guess that’s the guy in me.