Groupthink: that comfortable consensus where no one rocks the boat. Sounds nice, right? But it can lead to disastrous decisions. When teams prioritize harmony over critical thinking, they overlook risks and alternative solutions.
To avoid this pitfall, foster an environment where diverse opinions thrive. Encourage team members to write down thoughts individually before group discussion, or invite external reviewers. Try assigning different “lenses” – analytic, innovative, procedural, relational – to scrutinize projects. This way, even if consensus feels good, your team will see potential flaws and make truly informed choices.
HR and leadership coaching expert Jenn Porritt shares practical tips for teams to avoid groupthink.
“Groupthink” is very common, it happens a lot. This is when collaborative teams prioritize harmony and consensus over critical evaluation. And this can lead teams to ignore alternative decisions or solutions. They could overlook potential risks or even make poor decisions as a result.
So in order to avoid it, it’s important to create an environment—again, we’ve talked about this—where diverse opinions are encouraged and valued. For example, you could ask group members to write down their thoughts and opinions before revealing them to others. Or you can invite people from outside the group to evaluate your process, decisions, or the work of the group.
And another one I love, is you can ask team members to adopt different lenses to critique aspects of a project. Dr. Dawna Markova, for example, recommends an analytic lens, an innovative lens, a procedural, and a relational lens. In other words, you’re just asking people on the team, or outside the team, to pick up these different lenses and scrutinize things through that lens.
Sometimes teams will have people who tend towards some of those lenses naturally, based on their own strengths and preferences. But if not, they can be asked to put it on for the sake of the conversation. This could be really valuable, because you could have someone pick up an analytic lens and ask a question like, “what’s the logic behind this choice or what we’re doing?” Or you could have someone pick up the relational lens and think about, or ask questions about how the decision will affect people in relationships.
So, even if it doesn’t come naturally to people, just have them take a look at the output. Through those different lenses, you can come up with perhaps a few holes in the process or the decision that you didn’t realize before. It’s a great way to get that collaboration and to avoid “groupthink.”
Jenn has been immersed in human resources and training for more than 25 years and she’s committed to helping leaders evolve and grow to support successful organizations.
She holds a master’s certificate in organizational development and change from the Schulich School of Business and professional designations in both human resources (CHRL) and training & development (CTDP). She also holds coaching certifications from Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead, Team Coaching International, EQ in Action, Everything DiSC Workplace, Crucial Conversations, and Five Behaviours of Team Development.
Jenn’s career started in HR at the University of Wilfred Laurier in Waterloo, Ontario, then she moved to PriceWaterhouseCooper where she learned, tested, implemented, planned and oversaw hundreds of tools, trainings, courses, assessments, and management interventions. She has empowered more than 5,000 individuals and led more than 475 trainings.
Jenn is also the Subject Matter Expert for two of Dialectic’s new Learning Snippets programs: Leadership 101 and Collaboration 101. These are scenario-based microlearning programs that are designed to equip leaders and team members with proven tools and strategies.
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