“When everyone is in agreement, no one has really thought it through”
Anonymous
Co-operation is one of the dynamics you can experience within a team.
Obviously, co-operating within a team is one of the key to success. But be aware: is one of the success factors, not the only one. For example working having in front of you a goal (more or less shared) gives you a boost in productivity that is an enabler for success.
That is the reason why many managers tend to be happy when they see a team aligned on all topics. In reality this sort of close correlation between team and individuals, has the embedded risk that people tend to align to leading ideas, no longer examining ideas critically and hence losing the objective approach to solving problems and obtaining results.
The nice word used to describe this is “group thinking” and even thou in principle is a good approach, can be the way in which many angles of the same “evil” approach develop:
- focusing over a shared enemy (we as a team against all others): this concept doesn’t work fully, because people tend to accept same idea without discussing it, just because is the group one
- accepting the “alfa” idea: this doesn’t work because also leaders can make errors and some discussion can be healthy also for bringing to better and winning ideas
- unrealism: this is obviously not working, but supported from the group, a failing idea can be perceived by the group as real and possible
As a general behaviour, I see that frequently is easier for people to follow a thought and find ways to support it than thinking a brand new idea, even though the effort is quite the same. Unfortunately is one of our society problems: little number of makers and lot of followers that refuse any discussion.
But unleashing this potential is not so difficult: try to stimulate the discussion by gradually forcing everyone to express idea. I do it generally having people writing down separately their contribution and summarizing it on a flip board trying to categorize them if possible.
Then discussion starts little by little.
