Every boss feels good when subordinates agree with him. However, if you are a good boss, you should be suspicious at the same time. You should count on the fact that your team's agreement does not mean that a particular solution is correct. The absolute opposite may be true.
Your subordinates may prefer agreeing to expressing their true thoughts, which might be a minority opinion or unpopular. This is called groupthink. Decisions made by groups suffering from this problem are often wrong and may have very serious consequences not only on how the teams operate, but entire organizations.
Groupthink is most often manifested by a lack of team discussion focused on individual tasks and problems. Multiple alternative solutions are not discussed and the information available supports only one alternative. Other details are overlooked, leading to incorrect risk assessment and subsequent poor choice of solutions. To prevent this problem from happening in your team, try the following recommendations originally published on Forbes.com.
Talk about groupthink
Express the dangers of groupthink to your team members. Lead them to be observant for signs of the problem and intervene, if necessary.
Establish an open discussion
Build a culture in which employees are used to analyzing situations openly and will not be afraid to voice criticism. Improve information sharing and feedback. At the same time, learn to accept criticism and do not penalize anyone for expressing an opinion.
Assign advocates of counter-opinions
To be sure that a certain important issue will be assessed from all sides, appoint one or more people to represent the opinion that is counter to what you think in team discussions. You can also split the team into two groups, each defending different possible solutions.
Involve experts
In the case of really important decisions, internal or external experts in the field should always get involved in discussions to help you uncover all the alternatives. Do not be afraid to ask another team for an opinion.
Document final decisions
Record your decisions on solutions along the other alternatives and the reasons why they were rejected. Briefly describe the default situation and problems. It may come in handy when you re-evaluate your progress.
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