Group Think and Meetings

A recent study suggests that group think in meetings can result in poor decision making. Essentially, once people hear ideas from others, they have trouble coming up with ideas that differ from what has already been mentioned. So if you want people to come up with truly diverse ideas, you need to have them brainstorm individually, then come to a meeting with their ideas written down. Use the meeting to organize the ideas everyone has come up with on their own, discuss them, then take a break to allow everyone to process the ideas presented on their own. This gives everyone a chance to break out of group think again before a final decision is made.

Group think in meetings can also be used to great benefit when the purpose of a meeting is not to make a decision, but to get everybody on the same page. If working relatively independently has caused a group to lose focus on the goal they all are working toward, a meeting can serve to quickly refocus everyone's efforts on the task at hand.

Of course, group think in meetings can be taken advantage of in a negative way. If you want people to be incapable of thinking of any solution other than the one that you offer, even if they hate your solution to their deepest core, just force them to go to as many meetings as you can fit into a day, leaving them mentally exhausted and incapable of coming up with a better idea. Be careful to schedule meetings "before" and "after" lunch, but not during, so that you are not obligated to provide food even though it is obvious that no one will have time to eat between meetings. If people try to skip meetings to acquire sustenance, "forget" to tell them what (if anything) was decided in the meetings they skipped. This way, the rebels who are most likely to come up with ideas that differ from the desired group think will be left out of the loop and rendered incapable of contributing.

Meetings aren't the only place this is a problem. Any time someone wants to sell you something, they flood your brain with the wonders of their product, making it difficult for you to think of reasons why you shouldn't buy their product (other than not trusting salesmen). Politicians and pundits, too, do their best to fill your head with their ideas so that you have trouble coming up with your own. But meetings are particularly bad because they involve so many people trapped in a room together, unable to escape. Meetings have their uses and can be very productive when administered properly. But they can also be horribly unproductive if factors like group think aren't taken into account.

Chimps Attempting to Evolve

Chimps have been observed routinely making wood spears to catch prey. According to the article, the chimps are living in an environment similar to where humans first evolved. But it's mainly the female chimps who make and use the spears, which means they still haven't learned the skill that is key to civilization - manipulating the males. An anthropologist quoted in the article makes the point that the female chimps create the spears out of necessity: caring for children makes chasing food more difficult, so they've invented an easier method of catching food. But if they could convince the males to use the spears to catch food for them, they'd be one step closer to convincing them to settle down in a nice field, maybe build a shelter to protect themselves from the elements. Oh no! No one introduce those chimps to these monkeys. They might figure it out!