Well kia ora folks. I was reading an article from
Boardworks the other day and it was questioning
or talking about why is it that some people don't feel
comfortable expressing their opinion in meetings and
going with groupthink. So here's today's video where
I address this issue.
Click the blue times to jump to that section.
00:00 – Intro
00:57 – Point 1
01:26 – Point 2
02:16 – Point 3
02:40 – Point 4
They quoted a study that said that people quite often went against their own intuition to actually go with the shared opinion of others, but just having one dissenter in the group allowed other participants to feel free to express their opinion that at times they might not have done so and so it has a great quote it says, 'even one dissenter makes it easier for others to voice an opinion, so I'm going to give you the four things they talked about in the article that can help avoid groupthink'.
They're are four simple points but I can certainly relate to them I'm sure you'll be able to as well.
Point number one, it's unlikely that you're the only one that doesn't have everything figured out. It's the old, there is no dumb question comment and if you've ever been in the meeting with me you'll know that I do like to ask lots of questions, simply because I see that I have a duty of care to understand the issue, so we can actually have a discussion and I can contribute more and it can be uncomfortable at times asking questions and you do feel a little bit self-conscious, but I take the view that if I'm not sure, potentially others are exactly the same as well.
The second point says if you're too quick to join a consensus, perhaps you're missing the chance to add some value and according to a Mckinsey global study of more than 1100 directors only 56% that's staggering, only 56% of directors or senior management teams said that they were prepared to have constructive or difficult discussions when they were sitting around that boardroom table.
Now obviously it's not saying consensus is a bad thing, but more importantly how have you arrived at that decision and I remember a quote from Jim Collins years ago, it talks about 'autopsies without blame' and the key point there was that, when it comes to making a decision we're not looking at scoring political points, it's not an ego trip, we're just wanting to get the best information, so we can ask the best questions, so we can ultimately get to that best decision.
The next point number three was , if you have a different view then get on with it and share it, because the longer you wait to share a contrary view quite often the less likely it is that people will listen to you and we know what it's like you know once we make a decision we tend to look for evidence to support that decision as opposed to contrary views, so if you think you need to raise something and you're not sure then do that early.
The fourth one was be aware of your inherent desire to be part of the group. We all like to be liked and quite often we don't want to rock the boat, or we don't want to ask difficult questions, or be in a position where we think there's a little bit of disagreement, because that makes us feel uncomfortable and there's a story I've read a few times about a previous Chair of General Motors Alfred P Sloan, who reportedly said during a meeting, 'I take it that we're all in complete agreement on the decision here' and everybody nodded their heads and said yep absolutely, we certainly are and he said well what I propose to do then is that we postpone any more discussion around this particular matter until our next meeting and that will give ourselves time to develop some different ideas, so we can have a more robust discussion.
So don't try and make a decision because you think it's what the group wants to hear, make the decision because it's the best decision that needs to be made. So thanks for taking the time to watch this, hopefully you got some ideas out of it, love to hear any comments that you might have, if you like what you saw give it a thumbs, up subscribe to the channel and until next time catch you later, bye.
If you’d like to learn more about how PlanA Consulting can have a huge positive impact on your business, then contact Hutch today on 021 748 142 or john@planaconsulting.co.nz
Regards, Hutch.
