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Group think

So far, so good.

What about the dangers of group think?

Well, without going deep into the matter, we can easily identify the problems a group faces if it adheres too much to group think.

If it adheres too much to group think, or groupthink (one word – William H. Whyte, an American journalist, coined the word in 1952), an individual member’s initiative may suffer in consequence. As you can imagine, in a group that always emphasizes collective thought rather than individual initiative and innovation, individuals will, eventually, lose their individuality, creativity and uniqueness. Crucially, individuals may be compelled to keep their thoughts to themselves instead of airing their opinion freely. To give an extreme example, if you were a member of the Nazis in Germany during the Second World War, would you speak out in public against your party for prosecuting Jews, sending them into concentration camps and murdering them in gas chambers?

Well, you might and probably would’ve put yourself in harm’s way as a result.

What people do in circumstances like this is they usually wait and bide their time – and speak out after the tide is turned or about to turn. Unfortunately, by that time the damage of groupthink is usually done.

Anyways, you get the picture. Groupthink, in short, can be too much of a good thing.

Here are recent media examples:

1. Years ago, I was part of a merger between two public high-tech companies that ended in disaster. Turns out that executives of one company sugarcoated key aspects of their technology, and the opposing company’s CEO bought it hook, line and sinker.