the perpetuation of good ideas is a bad idea

Summary

groupthink is when the desire for harmony in a group makes the group dumb. you can watch it happen in real time in media. you can watch it happen in podcasting. you can watch it happen in your own meetings if you’re not careful.

1. the media pattern. five companies own most of the news. the news all sounds the same. not by conspiracy. by groupthink. the people inside all read the same things and talk to the same other people.

2. the podcasting pattern. the same fifty guests rotate across the top shows. the same ten ideas get repeated. listeners think they’re hearing variety. they’re hearing one idea echoed.

3. the fix in business. assign a devil’s advocate on every big decision. read books, not just podcasts, books force longer thinking. solicit anonymous feedback before meetings so the loudest voice doesn’t shape the room. build a culture where dissent is rewarded, not punished.

your company will drift toward whatever idea sounds nicest in the room. lead against that drift. try harder.

Transcript

introduction to the episode and the concept of groupthink

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey.

So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. How can we avoid making bad decisions in our businesses? This is a better human business podcast. I’m Jerred Moon. And today I want to talk a little bit about the idea of groupthink. So groupthink, if you have not heard of the term, it’s a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people when the desire for harmony and conformity results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.

explaining groupthink and its impact on decision-making

It’s where people are trying to minimize conflict. They’re trying to reach a consensus without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints and it does lead to poor decision-making. Now I want to zoom out really far here and talk a little bit more big picture about what I think is happening to a lot of industries right now and what has happened.

So if we look at any medium of communication, you can see them go through the same arc over time. And hopefully I don’t lose anybody. I’ll try to keep this brief. But when you just look at the local news or just news in general, news started as a way to actually gather what was going on around the world, around the country, or locally in your district, your county, your city.

historical context of media evolution and its parallels in podcasting

And those things slowly evolved. A lot of people had a local station that they trusted. And then if you actually look at how these things progress, what really happened was during the Vietnam War, the 24-hour news cycle really started and they were actually starting to show us videos of things that were happening in war.

And the history war previous wasn’t like that. They could kind of, they could manage the script a little bit more. And I’m not saying that from a conspiracy theory standpoint, but there could be a slant and it could be fully sold to the public by following this idea of, hey, here’s what we need to get out, here’s what’s best for the people.

how the podcast industry reflects groupthink dynamics

And then what media companies started to see was like, hey, more controversial, more controversial, more hardcore, it gets more views, it gains more. People in social media do these things. But what’s ultimately happened is it’s gone away from all these splintered out media sources to conglomerates, right?

There’s just these big, big media companies that basically run the communication and a lot of people are burnt out on it. So they’re not really participating anymore. And that’s why everyone has a podcast now and everyone can communicate however they want. But the funny thing is, is it’s happening again.

strategies to combat groupthink in organizations

People just don’t realize it yet. So you have the Joe Rogans, you have the Jocko Willinks, you have all of these people, these massive podcast platforms given their different industries and that they all just cross pollinate with one another. It’s great for audience building for them. So I see why they do it.

But what they don’t realize is happening is they are perpetuating groupthink. This is what’s happening and it’s becoming conglomerates of the top 10 percent or the top 20 percent rule, 80 percent to 90 percent of everything that’s being published. And again, it’s just this cross pollination of this popular podcaster getting this popular podcaster and the ideas are more along the ideas of the groupthink category because typically someone with these radical ideas, like different radical ideas, they don’t normally come together to try and reach a consensus.

the role of a devil’s advocate in challenging group consensus

Not that could even really happen, but that’s not what they’re doing. What they’re doing is they’re getting like minded people with similar size followings and they’re just having these rehashing the same conversations over and over, but they’re trying to grow their businesses in the process. So anyway, what I’m trying to express is the fact that every time this cycle starts over, you realize that we’re just getting to this groupthink phenomenon.

And so no one’s actually making any good ideas and I don’t mean to focus too much on media or podcasters or anything like that, but it’s just funny that it’s happening again. From media to podcasting, I feel like that’s what’s going to be the truth over the next five to ten years is people are going to realize it’s the few that have it and that can communicate and then it’s going to be the have-nots, if you will, for being able to communicate a message or an idea.

the importance of diversity in information and perspectives

It’s going to get harder and harder just like it already is to compete or was with the media. And the same will be true of podcasting as it gets more saturated. But the point I’m really trying to illustrate is when you are taking part in listening to just the media or you’re listening to just the set of podcasters who cross-pollinate with one another, you are starting to fall prey to groupthink, again, that psychological phenomenon where people aren’t trying to rock the boat, so they’re just trying to come to consensus.

They’re trying to minimize conflict, just have good conversations that make great Instagram reels so we can get away from having to be critical of evaluating alternative viewpoints or having to make any good decisions. So if you are taking part in all these podcasts, you’re now part of groupthink. And why do we need to be aware of this?

how to foster a culture that encourages critical evaluation and dissent

We need to be aware of it because in our businesses, groupthink can kill your business. Like I do listen to some health and fitness podcasts, but it’s funny, it’s like the same ten people just interview each other and talk to each other over and over and hash out that there’s the sleep expert who’s been interviewed on all the popular podcasts.

So it’s really one guy who’s talked to 30 different popular podcasts, but it’s still only his set of ideas, his research, it hasn’t really gone out further. And so that’s what we’re missing. And this can happen very easily in your business if you’re only ever talking to the same people. Maybe you have a friend or a colleague that you bounce ideas off of.

closing thoughts on the necessity of resisting groupthink for business growth

Maybe you always put your ideas to your team, but your team, they’re just trying to agree with you. They don’t want to rock the boat. And you’re starting to become part of groupthink when you don’t realize it. And this is how you start making really poor decisions. If you want to make sure that you are not participating in groupthink, you’re not going down this path of making poor decisions.

Step one, if we wanted to talk about the medium podcast, that’s all fine. Listen to your podcast. I listen to some podcasts, but most of my good ideas come from books. Like when I’m listening to an audiobook, I get more ideas than the perpetuated good idea groupthink that’s coming from the things that I already like to hear and enjoy.

But a book might challenge me a little bit more and expand my mind. So one, read outside your scope. Read different books. But really, when it comes down to your team, you need to encourage an open dialogue with your team. This is paramount. You need to let people know that they can communicate and they’re not going to get in trouble.

And when you are communicating with your team, always appoint a devil’s advocate. In my businesses, that’s always going to be me. Not that I’m a negative person, but like I just try to rip ideas apart why they won’t work. Even if I’m kind of like, I think this will work, but let’s talk about why it won’t.

I’m the devil’s advocate in most conversations. Can you appoint one on your team or can you be that person yourself? Because a lot of entrepreneurs, they get an idea, they get excited and they just want to do it. They want everyone to tell them that’s a good idea. But either you need to be the devil’s advocate for yourself or you need to appoint one.

You can do this with, you can also, if you have a very large team, you can create anonymous forms that people can fill out to give feedback. And you have to ultimately establish a clear decision-making process. Is this going to impact the business? What’s the cost going to be? You have to go through some sort of structured decision-making process to be able to go through multiple rounds of anonymous feedback and discussion and getting the devil’s advocate point of view.

But ultimately, if you strive for these things, it will happen. And so, the only thing I’m trying to draw attention to is that you need to have an awareness about groupthink in not only the content that you’re consuming, but what you’re doing within your team. Because it might sound like, hey, we’re just doing good idea after good idea, but if you’re not relying on data or you’re not relying on devil’s advocate, you’re just going to keep going down this path and eventually the business won’t be growing how it once was because you actually have established a very poor decision-making process.

And it’s riddled with groupthink and people not really challenging one another. And sometimes leaders think that’s the best way to lead is for everyone just to be happy and no one step on anybody’s toes, so on and so forth. Let’s just live a harmonious life, but that’s not really how it works. Iron sharpens iron.

You need to have that resistance. You need to press on bad ideas. You need to communicate with them. If you see something, you say something. You need to instill that in your team that they’re allowed to tell you when they think a bad idea is coming and there’s not going to be pushback for that or they’re not going to get in trouble.

So, it’s a different group dynamic than most leaders are used to. Most leaders do just want that harmony, but that’s not what’s going to foster business growth ultimately. But to avoid groupthink and to set up this kind of culture in your business, you are going to have to try harder.