Social Pressure Vs. Groupthink

Social Pressure is more powerful than many people think: it influences school classes, people’s fashion, and even the workplace. Similar to other phenomenons, it can have positive and negative effects, and groupthink is an example of the latter: Groupthink can lead to faulty decision making, ignored crucial alternatives, and varied ideas left behind. Furthermore, groupthink occurs when a group is highly cohesive, and the group members share strong relationships. Fortunately, there are many ways to avoid it, two of them are bringing people from the outside and letting people know that the leader of the group isn't autocratic.

One of the best ways to avoid groupthink is bringing people that aren’t from the group to the group. Firstly, if all of the group members have the same idea, having a fresh brain in the party is a solution to discovering bad ideas. As a matter if
fact, Harvard Business Experts say that bringing in outside experts to mentor your team is crucial to success. This also means that the outside experts or even team members can learn to play the devil’s advocate. A devil’s advocate is a person who expresses a contentious opinion in order to provoke debate or test the strength of the opposing arguments. One of the reasons why Colgate is so successful is because they bring foreigners every year to give feedback or advice on the company. Ian Cook, the CEO of the company, quotes: “If any of my employees questions any decision, the whole team is rounded up and discusses the subject at hand”.

If you want your team to avoid groupthink, then they should know that you are willing to take into account their plans and ideas.
Many if not most of the most successful leaders have all done this. Take abraham Lincoln for example: he made sure that he was surrounded of his political rivals and he made it clear to them that he was interested to hear all about their opinions. Even though the public was skeptical of his strategy at first, it turned out to work extremely well. On the other hand, George W. Bush, has a lot of blood on his hand because of groupthink. His decision making process was insular, and he led a small group of like-minded advisors who effectively shielded the president from contrary opinions on Iraqi and Middle Eastern affairs. At the time, the united states waged a war against Iraq and he decided to send troops to the country to kill their dictator: Saddam Hussein. After having murdered him and left the country in complete disorder, Isis, a terrorist association, was created. To this day, people blame him for the trouble he made, and all of that because of selfish decision
making. Groupthink can be extremely dangerous, but luckily, there are numerous approaches to maintain a distance from it, two of them are bringing individuals from the outside and telling individuals that the pioneer of the gathering isn't totalitarian. However, conformity can sometimes be helpful: it can help people fit in, it provides a safety net for society and it encourages law enforcement.