The Truth About Managing People, Third Edition

Truth 46. Beware of Groupthink

If you’re like me, you’ve occasionally felt like speaking up in a meeting or group setting but decided against it. Why didn’t we speak up? If what we wanted to say didn’t fit in with the dominant views of the group, we may have been victims of groupthink. This is a phenomenon that occurs when group members become so focused on achieving agreement that the search for consensus overrides any realistic assessment of deviant or unpopular views. It represents a deterioration in an individual’s mental efficiency and reality testing as a result of group pressures.

We have all seen the symptoms of the groupthink phenomenon:

1. Group members rationalize any resistance to the assumptions that the group has made. No matter ...