If you’ve ever agreed to a decision at work even when you believe it to be the worst move your company could make, you need to learn how to avoid groupthink. If you’ve noticed workers at your organization make unanimous decisions every single time regardless of the issue, then there are signs of groupthink at your workplace and it’s likely stifling innovation and creativity. But what is groupthink? It refers to the tendency for groups to make decisions in agreement with each other every time, due to various pressures and fears and not because of actually agreeing with each other.
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What is Groupthink?
Psychology Today suggests that the term was first defined by Yale psychologist Irving Janis in a 1971 issue of the magazine. Delving into matters of decision-making under stress, Janis strived to understand whether people were truly capable of ignoring their internal concerns in order to be one with the group. Evidence suggested that people in fact were likely to give into the dominant group ideology to stay a part of the in-group rather than voicing concerns and disrupting the harmony. On the surface this does not seem to be a serious issue—if employees are making unanimous decisions and working in harmony, why should you waste your resources to understand how to avoid groupthink?
You should care about the phenomenon because the harmony your company enjoys under these circumstances remains unstable and counterproductive to the overall health of the organization. Poor behavior is often ignored, bad decision-making with regard to clients is not addressed, and all attempts at correcting errors are suppressed by those around them. Instead of devising new ideas and solutions when a problem is encountered, employees might use older, outdated approaches that are quite ineffective, just because the group prefers it. With no change in strategy, there are going to be no changes in results.
Worse still, employees engaging often find themselves under constant pressure to do and say the right thing all the time. There is no opportunity to be themselves or put their minds to use as they’re regularly expected to do what the group wants. The suppression of differences might be overt or covert—overt through verbal and social cues that express disapproval when an employee tries to do something different, or covert when there is a complete lack of support for any unsanctioned ideas that die out either way. Understanding what groupthink is and taking measures to avoid it is essential in any workplace.
Signs of Groupthink
Your employees might agree with an idea purely because it is a great idea and there might be no disagreements within the group. These behaviors can be hard to detect primarily because they can blend into a regular workplace quite easily. On the other hand, it might be because of pressure. It can be a good idea to look out for signs and verify with employees how they actually feel about different decisions to get a better handle on how to handle them. Keeping an eye out for the signs of groupthink is always a good idea and according to Verywell Mind, Janis presents us with 8 eight signs:
- The illusion of unanimity: Every member of the team appears to agree on every matter and sticks to their guns to maintain the status quo
- Unquestioned belief in the Group: They do not try to find alternate answers or opinions and tend to stay in agreement with what others are stating without considering alternatives
- Rationalizing: Individuals tend to find excuses to stick to the decisions made by their team members, ignoring any contradictory information or reasoning it away
- Stereotyping: Cliques tend to form within the organization, separating those with dissimilar beliefs and leaving them out of decisions and conversations entirely
- Self-censorship: Those who have ideas and opinions they want to share often choose to remain silent rather than draw attention to themselves. It is quite common to see lively, enthusiastic employees “lose their spark” after a few months of working a new job
- Self-Appointed Mindguards: In addition to the group displaying these signs, there are a few who hold information away from the team in order to avoid losing anyone from the groupthink circle of influence
- Illusions of invulnerability: Those within the inside circle of the force often present a sense of confidence in the decisions they are making, convincing the rest that no harm will come to them as long as they agree with the majority
- Pressure: A more overt form of enforcing groupthink, here, the ingroup tends to goad others into falling in line with the majority
How to Avoid Groupthink in the Workplace
Once you witness groupthink in the workplace, it can be quite hard to look away because of just how ingrained it becomes in the company system. Once a majority voice is established that discourages any disagreements from outside, there is no longer anyone to speak up against unfair practices at work. Stressed and pressured employees often quit damaging the company’s overall retention numbers and presenting the world with an image of a company with a toxic work culture. To build healthy debate and an open communication system, companies need to learn how to avoid groupthink from spreading within their organization.
Communicate Regularly—Check-Ins Can Save Your Business
The simplest form of identifying the signs of groupthink at your organization and doing something about it is communicating with employees. Having regularly scheduled talks with every employee at work can help build rapport with them and make them more likely to open up to their managers and HR. These conversations can also allow management to become better at picking up on cues when something is wrong, guiding them to ask the right questions every time.
These regular check-ins with employees collectively can also put employees at ease about being caught speaking up against the group. If the employee seeks out HR individually, it can become quite obvious that they were the reason the groupthink was exposed to the organization but when the HR team regularly talks to everyone and maintains employee confidentiality on the contents of the conversation, employees can safely bring up matters of serious concern, allowing HR to take action carefully.
Communication also ensures that information is spread to each employee fairly rather than leaving it to one spokesperson who may decide not to communicate pertinent information with the group. Conduct regular checks to assess the communication, performance, client feedback, meeting results, etc. of teams to assess whether things are truly running as smoothly as they present to the outside world. There are many strategies to discover on how to avoid groupthink in the workplace but communication must come first in every company.
Encourage Innovation and Creativity
When organizations become too set in their own ways, groupthink can thrive quite easily as employees will be caught feeling like the traditional way is the only way to get work done. For fear of standing out, they might then stifle their ideas in favor of repeating existing practices, and companies will soon find themselves unable to keep up with anything that the changing industry is coming up with. Creativity and innovation often fuel success and to keep the cycle moving ahead, the organization needs to encourage and reward innovation.
A part of the employee’s responsibilities could involve idea generation or problem-solving, where employees can be encouraged to find new ways to approach a problem. Through rewards and bonuses, employees who go beyond their basic roles and develop new ideas can be celebrated to show other employees that creativity is favored over what the larger group as a whole thinks is important. Encourage employees to ask questions, look at various data points, seek novel solutions and think for themselves overall. When employees feel supported by their employers, they might find the courage to break out and do what they best believe is right.
Increasing Interdepartmental Interactions
A large reason why groupthink occurs is because employees get caught up in echo chambers or what their team thinks is right. The same voices tend to speak up and dictate the priorities of the group, silencing any change for new ideas to be brought up. An employee’s social network might extend only as far as their immediate team as well, making it difficult for them to find a connection with anyone within their own organizations. Breaking teams up regularly, to interact with other departments is a great way for employees to see what others at the organization are doing and how they might prefer to reshape the way they work.
By encouraging discussions and interdepartmental interactions, employees might find new ideas, new support systems, and the courage to speak up against any restrictive pressures they experience within their own team. This can break down the power of cliques within the organization and facilitate the gaining of new perspectives within every employee.
Make Support Networks Clear to Employees
Actions speak much louder than words and organizations need to be very clear about their stance on issues like bullying and intimidation. Well-defined policies in the employee handbook are a good place to start but organizations need to go one step further and show that they follow through with these policies seriously. Knowing that the organization will not dismiss a claim without an investigation is necessary for an employee to speak up against group pressures, free from the fear of being asked to conform again.
Through anonymous suggestion boxes, regular HR availability, action against reported incidents, regular reviews of workplace policies, etc. companies can convey their own commitment to stand against any form of workplace harassment and bullying whether severe or not.
Provide Training: Risk Appraisal, Conflict Management, Critical Thinking, etc.
Employees do not always come equipped with the entire set of skills necessary to create a strong, self-defined presence at work. Some find it hard to go against the grain and say no to ideas, others are very easily swayed and do not put too much thought into their own perspective on an issue, preferring to go along with what they are told instead. Soft Skills training can open up their minds to making decisions based on complete information and help them assess the true risks and rewards of every situation rather than blindly pursuing decisions that might be fatal to the company. These training sessions are bound to benefit the company in one way or another. Training can also involve educating the employees themselves on what groupthink is and the signs they should look out for, to ensure they are not falling into these patterns themselves without realizing it. Encourage employees to stay on their toes and be introspective and responsive every day.
Conflict management training can also support employees who are afraid of getting into disagreements with their team, teaching them the path towards healthy debate and honest communication instead of suppressing anger until it turns into a sudden outburst of rage at work. Disagreements at work are not inherently bad—they allow individuals to actively acknowledge their differences and find a solution to make room for both perspectives rather than passive-aggressively getting in each other’s way all the time. Healthy resolutions are a good sign of a healthy workplace.
If you’re trying to build a healthy work culture where people look forward to working every day, then learning how to avoid groupthink should be a priority for you. Learn the many signs of groupthink and train management to do the same, regularly helping employees break out of the fixed molds to be their most honest versions of themselves. Remember that a great part of hiring different talent is the different ideas and perspectives that come with them and suppressing these unique aspects of each employee only compromises the true potential of these talented individuals.