How Groupthink Takes Over an Organization (and How to Combat It)

If you aren’t careful, groupthink can take over your organization. Essentially, this means nearly everyone in your organization begins to think the same and act the same. There are many problems with this, as it limits creativity, creates blind spots, and ultimately causes the organization to stagnate.

So how do you combat this?

The Problems With Groupthink

On some level, it could be an advantage for everyone to think and act in similar ways. But there are a number of marked problems with groupthink.

These include:

•         Lack of diversity of thought. Diversity of thought is imperative for fully exploring problems and potential solutions. If you want to be in a better position to resolve a given issue, you need to be able to see it from all angles and consider all possible ways to resolve it. If everyone is working with the same set of intellectual tools, everyone is going to see the problem from the same perspective and come up with the same limited range of solutions to address it. This is one reason why businesses often hire consultants and other outside leaders, like fractional CMOs, who can bring not only marketing expertise to an organization, but also external perspective and fresh ideas.
•         Limited creativity. Groupthink also limits creativity. When people follow the same thought processes and maintain the same philosophies and values, they tend to come up with the same types of novel ideas, often conforming to existing principles. In many cases, it pays to think outside the box in business, and the only way to do this at the level of the collective is to foster different types of creative thinking.
•         Lack of problem recognition. To make matters worse, groupthink can create blind spots within your organization, leading to a lack of problem recognition. If everyone is going about their business in previously prescribed, formulaic ways, they may not even be aware that certain problems exist. And if you aren’t aware that the problems exist, you won’t be in a position to solve them.
•         Internal pressure to conform. When people begin to recognize groupthink within an organization, they feel an internal pressure to conform. Even if they secretly think differently and have different values and perspectives than everyone else around them, they may make a concentrated effort to appear “normal” by stifling their opinions. In addition to robbing your organization of those potentially good ideas, this causes internal dissonance, which can lead to lower morale and lower productivity.
•         Groupthink blindness. To top it all off, many organizations suffer from groupthink blindness. In other words, they aren’t even aware that groupthink is a problem in their organization. They see it as a form of cultural unity and effective collaboration, not knowing how many ideas and perspectives they’re missing out on by succumbing to a singularly unifying mode of cognitive operation.

How Groupthink Takes Over an Organization

Groupthink can take over an organization in many ways, some of which are more obvious than others. It can originate from leaders and flow downward, especially in environments where leaders don’t tolerate novel modes of thinking. It can also originate from the bottom up, especially in organizations without strong leadership, because people without direction are often both complacent and conformist.

In any case, groupthink is self-reinforcing. The more your organization practices some kind of groupthink, the harder it is to pull out of it.

Combating Groupthink

So what are you supposed to do if you know that groupthink has taken over your organization?

•         Foster and promote diversity of thought. Make it a point to foster and promote diversity of thought. You can do this by hiring different types of candidates, asking people for their ideas and meetings, and embracing different approaches for different types of situations.
•         Hire outside authorities. If you can’t seem to break out of the confines of groupthink, consider hiring a fractional CMO, a consultant, or some other external authority to bring some fresh perspective in.
•         Train effective leaders. Sometimes, groupthink flows from the top down, so it’s important to instill effective leaders who are willing to entertain all types of ideas and perspectives. If your leaders not only tolerate but welcome unique forms of thinking, so will the rest of your employees.
•         Get inspiration from competitors. You can also get inspiration from competitors and other businesses. How do they run things? What types of ideas are they coming up with? How are they responding to new conflicts and issues that need to be resolved?

The easiest way to handle groupthink is to prevent it from manifesting within your organization. But failing that, you’ll need to fight back, intentionally promoting diversity of thought and encouraging people with unique thinking styles and new ideas.