From the course: Teamwork Foundations

Risky shift and groupthink

From the course: Teamwork Foundations

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Risky shift and groupthink

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- Research into problems in teams has identified two related effects called risky shift and groupthink. Risky shift is the tendency for teams to choose more risky plans than individuals would have chosen. Groupthink is where teams start to all think alike and nobody questions the plan until afterwards. Let's have a quick look at why these happen and whether they matter, and what can be done if they do. First, risky shift. I think it's fairly obvious why a team would tend to make more risky decisions, since nobody has individual accountability if the risk doesn't pan out. Also, the more cautious ones will probably be quieter and therefore, have less of a say. Does it matter? Well, yes, taking undue risks can have really bad consequences, so we must make sure that decisions are made properly and not by a gung ho group. Always make sure that somebody's name is on every decision. Then there's groupthink, this is where the team all starts to think the same way. Ask yourself, in your company or organization, do you have a cultural way of thinking that people maybe don't have when they first join, but which becomes the way you work, almost without you realizing. Coupled with this is the tendency for people to keep quiet about possible problems because they don't want to appear negative or different. It's often the quiet ones who are the thinkers. But it's only afterwards that someone will say, actually I was a bit worried about that. And when you say, well why didn't you say anything? They say, well you didn't ask. Annoying, but actually why didn't you ask? Maybe you should have a system where before you take action on something important and risky, you ask the quiet thinker types, can you see any snags with this plan Nina? And then, give them a chance to be heard. The author Edward de Bono has a variant of this where he suggests that people take it in turns to be the negative one. He calls it wearing the black hat. The black hat wearer of the day has permission to be negative. It's okay, it's their job. And at every meeting, someone always has to be wearing the imaginary black hat. The final thought about this, what if you have a weak leader who isn't doing any of this? As a good team player, what should you do? I think the answer is that anybody can suggest that someone wears the black hat. Anybody can ask, hey Nina, you're good at spotting the flaws in the plans, can you see any risk points in this one? Or even that we ask everyone in term around the table and each person as a chance to talk about the possible benefits and the possible risks of the plan. Something like that so that nobody gets picked on, but you do get to hear from that quiet person. What's your team like at spotting the flaws in plans? Does your team become too confident and too risk taking sometimes? Who in your team is good at spotting potential problems? And could you imagine asking them what they think of the plan? I think that would be an easy thing to do and it could really make a difference.

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