Have you ever found yourself in a meeting surrounded by colleagues nodding along in agreement, wondering if everyone truly agreed?
At first glance, the agreement might seem like a sign of harmony. But what if it’s really just a sign of conformity?
The nodding heads, while comforting, could be a warning signal that groupthink has taken hold.
Groupthink occurs when the desire for consensus stifles differing opinions. This discourages critical thinking and fresh ideas. While cohesion is critical to team success, too much conformity kills creativity, leading to poor decision-making and missed opportunities.
What is Groupthink?
Groupthink occurs when the need for group cohesion overrides the group’s ability to critically evaluate ideas. And it can be deadly for an organization.
When groupthink is present in the workplace, team members are afraid to speak up or present alternative perspectives for fear of being outcast. Over time, this can lead to bad decisions and poor team performance.
Think back to that last team meeting where everyone seemed to be in agreement. Now imagine someone raising their hand and saying, “Here’s something we haven’t considered.” How would the room react?
If the response to a differing perspective is defensive or dismissive, groupthink has likely already taken root. In a culture of groupthink, new ideas get squashed and mediocrity takes over. All the while, the team thinks it’s making perfectly sound choices.
In Exos’ extensive experience with high-performing teams, we’ve found that the best teams share a common trait: They openly encourage differing opinions to unlock creativity and smarter solutions.
The Dangerous Impact of Groupthink
Here are four signs that groupthink might be harming the performance of your team:
1. Lack of Innovation
Does your team often have dull, uninspired brainstorming sessions? Groupthink stifles creativity, making team members hesitant to propose new ideas for fear of being shot down. The result? A quick path to your organization getting outshined by more innovative competitors.
2. Unquestioned Consensus
When nobody voices a different opinion, teams gain a false sense of cohesion and underestimate the complexity of the decision at hand. Pay attention to whose voices dominate the conversation. Without challenge, decisions are made too quickly, leading to poor outcomes.
3. Suppression of Disagreement
Groupthink causes leaders or dominant team members to marginalize or silence those who disagree, stifling debate and preventing critical evaluation of decisions. This damages psychological safety and discourages team members from contributing.
4. Lack of Diversity
Do your team members tend to think in very similar ways? Groupthink thrives when everyone on the team shares similar backgrounds and perspectives. Lack of thought diversity creates an echo chamber where new ideas struggle to surface.
How to Improve Teamwork Through Dissent
Fortunately, there’s a powerful antidote to groupthink: healthy disagreement, aka dissent.
Dissent is not just a powerful way to combat groupthink. It’s the key to unlocking flow state as a team — which can elevate your team’s performance to sky-high levels.
At Exos, we say “flow follows focus,” and dissent serves as a catalyst for that focus. Injecting dissent into a conversation reengages your team. This allows your team members to focus on new possibilities and challenges. Dissent then becomes the driving force behind innovative solutions and high performance.
Here’s how to embrace dissent as a productive tool:
1. Create Psychological Safety
High-performing teams have high levels of psychological safety.
Team members need to feel safe expressing their opinions, even if they’re unpopular. To encourage good ideas, leaders should actively seek out diverse viewpoints and cultivate an environment of belonging where team members aren’t punished for speaking up.
Acknowledge dissent with appreciation, rather than defensiveness. This reinforces that differing ideas are valued. By promoting curiosity and actively listening to your team’s voices, you ensure that all perspectives are considered while making decisions.
2. Encourage Diverse Perspectives
Diverse teams perform better because they tend to approach problems from different angles. Not to mention, they’re more likely to challenge the status quo and propose innovative solutions.
If you already have a homogenous team, it’s not too late. You can still foster diverse perspectives by inviting participation, using inclusive language, and encouraging everyone to speak up.
Building high-performing teams means creating moments for team members to learn about each other’s unique experiences. This leads to deeper understanding and richer debate.
3. Facilitate Constructive Debate
Create structured opportunities for debate within your meetings.
One effective way is to schedule time for “devil’s advocate” discussions. Assign a team member or subgroup to challenge the team’s assumptions. Their role is to identify weaknesses in the argument and improve the quality of the decision. Or, you can simply block off time in the meeting to encourage disagreements without assigning roles.
These techniques ensure that differing viewpoints are explored and lead to more well-rounded, thoughtful decisions. Constructive debate not only prevents groupthink but leads to stronger, more innovative solutions.
Have fun with it! Leaders of high-performing teams foster cultures where dissent is anything but a big deal.
4. Reward New Perspectives
Teams are more likely to engage in dissent when it’s recognized and rewarded. Remember, dissent takes courage.
As a leader, you should praise team members who bring new ideas to the table, especially if those ideas challenge the group’s consensus. Publicly acknowledging the courage it takes to disagree sets the tone for others to follow suit. This ensures that different opinions are celebrated instead of silenced.
Openly encouraging dissent creates a ripple effect, encouraging more team members to offer different perspectives. Remind your team members that this is the path to becoming a higher-performing team.
5. Build Dissent Into the Team’s Decision-Making Process
To ensure new perspectives, high-performing teams systematically surface dissent and alternative viewpoints.
Assigning a teammate or group of teammates to be the “devil’s advocate” as mentioned above is a proven way to improve discussions through dissent.
Another popular approach is the “Six Thinking Hats” method. The team explores an issue from six distinct perspectives, one at a time:
- Logic
- Emotion
- Creativity
- Optimism
- Pessimism
- Management
This process pushes individuals to think outside their usual modes, ensuring that every angle is considered before a decision is made.
How Good Leaders Welcome Dissent
The number one rule when it comes to welcoming dissent and ditching groupthink: Just be curious.
Company leadership plays a crucial role in preventing groupthink by modeling curiosity and openness to dissenting opinions.
By facilitating an environment where dissent is valued, leaders enable their teams to tap into their highest potential. This allows teamwork, creativity, and performance to flourish.
The Next Step
In a world that often prizes conformity and rapid consensus, dissent can feel uncomfortable. But that’s exactly what makes it so valuable.
Dissent pushes teams out of complacency, forces them to consider new perspectives, and ultimately leads to better decisions and stronger performance.
At Exos, we know that dissent is essential for creating a culture of sustainable high performance. When teams embrace dissent, they unlock creativity, innovation, and flow — a state where the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
So, the next time you find yourself in a room full of nodding heads, don’t be afraid to raise your hand and challenge the consensus. You might just be the catalyst your team needs to perform at its best.
Want to help your team take the next step? Check out Exos’ employer offerings.
