We are all in danger of skidding on this banana peel - so here's our little public service announcement...

Thanks to psychologist Irving Janis for theorizing Groupthink...

Eight Main Symptoms of Group Think

• Illusion of Invulnerability: Members ignore obvious danger, take extreme risk, and are overly optimistic.
• Collective Rationalization: Members discredit and explain away warning contrary to group thinking.
• Illusion of Morality: Members believe their decisions are morally correct, ignoring the ethical consequences of their decisions.
• Excessive Stereotyping:The group constructs negative sterotypes of rivals outside the group.
• Pressure for Conformity: Members pressure any in the group who express arguments against the group's stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, viewing such opposition as disloyalty.
• Self-Censorship: Members withhold their dissenting views and counter-arguments.
• Illusion of Unanimity: Members perceive falsely that everyone agrees with the group's decision; silence is seen as consent.
• Mindguards: Some members appoint themselves to the role of protecting the group from adverse information that might threaten group complacency.

Avoiding Group Think

• The group should be made aware of the causes and consequences of group think.
• The leader should be neutral when assigning a decision-making task to a group, initially witholding all preferences and expectations. This practice will be especially effective if the leaders consistently encourages an atmosphere of open inquiry.
• The leader should give high priority to airing objections and doubts, and be accepting of criticism.
• Groups should always consider unpopular alternatives, assigning the role of devil's advocate to several strong members of the group.
• Sometimes it is useful to divide the group into two separate deliberative bodies as feasibilities are evaluated.
• Spend a sizable amount of time surveying all warning signals from rival group and organizations.
• After reaching a prelimiary consensus on a decision, all residual doubts should be expressed and the matter reconsidered.
• Outside experts should be included in vital decision making.
• Tentative decisions should be discussed with trusted colleagues not in the decision-making group.
• The organization should routinely follow the administrative practice of establishing several independent decision-making groups to work on the same critical issue or policy.