Do You Conform to Groupthink?

What? Working in groups is very beneficial to learning, businesses, and other aspects of life. Without working together, organizations would not be as efficient as they are today. Although they are very efficient, there are many problems that could occur while working in groups. One of the many reasons why working in groups often fails is because they succumb to  groupthink. Groupthink is when the group is under pressure to conform to the majority. This often occurs because members of the group want to avoid conflict or risk being isolated or cast out for their decisions. I have found that groupthink often occurs during group projects or decisions in college classes.
 

So What? Irving Janis, a pyschologist, came up with 8 indicators that groupthink may be occurring. The eight indicators of groupthink outline the most common characteristics a group which is experiencing groupthink might have such as, the illusion of invulnerability or the illusion of unanimity. Through my own experiences and from reading The Art of Leadership, I have seen these two indicators while participating in groups in my classes. For example, while working on a project my group felt like we could accomplish our project very quickly and therefore put it off until it was almost due. Unfortunately our group had the illusion of invulnerability and came to see the that we had made the mistake of believing that all of our decisions were going to be automatically successful.
 
Now What? Although groupthink often does occur, there are precautionary measures that can be taken to prevent groupthink from occurring. Many of the precautionary measures involve the leader of the group taking a step back and assigning members of the group tasks to ensure that all views are seen and any doubts or hesitations are discussed. I think that if the leader of my group that experienced the illusion of invulnerability took a step back and assigned each of the members a job to evaluate each of our decisions we would have not experienced groupthink. Instead I believe that we would have determined we needed to put more time and effort into our project which would have then made us seen exactly how much work we had to do for it. Since then I have learned how to avoid groupthink while working in groups and in doing made the groups that I participate in more successful.

Are You Empowered?

What? There are many key elements to running a successful business. Empowerment of the people that take part in a buisness or corporation is one of most important elements. It can determine the overall success or failure of a company.As an example, Fred Smith, the chairman of Federal Express, stated "empowering people is the single most important element in managing our organization". This goes to show that many leaders value empowerment in their organizations. On the other hand some leaders and business owners do not empower the people who work for them. Unfortunately I have experienced working for a business owner who did not empower his employees.

So What? Employees that are empowered are able to identify problems and fix them without going through many levels of authorization. Empowered workplaces have seven key characteristics that allow them to function successfully. For example, since my coworkers were not empowered, they were unable to do anything on their own without asking permission from a higher authority. This decreased the productivity and efficiency of the business and caused chaos to occur at times. Work policies were also unheeded because employees were not included in the policy making. Along with that policies were constantly changing and employees were often unaware of what policies were in effect and which ones were not. This caused employees to be unable to work together well and as a result there work performance decreased significantly.

Now What? By following the principles of an empowered workplace, leaders can effectively empower others in the buisness. These principles include: trust in people, invest in people, recognize accomplishments, decentralize decision making, and view work as a cooperative effort. Also by following the principles the business will also have the seven characteristics of an empowered workplace that I have stated above. If the workplace that I was employed at followed these principles, our service, efficiency, and work environment would have improved dramatically.  It is critical for a successful business or organization to be empowered because without empowerment they will not be able to succeed.