Business Communications and Groupthink From Wiser

Working in a group presents unique challenges, some of which emerge not during times of conflict, but ironically, during harmonious interactions. As Sunstein & Hastie (2015) point out in the first few chapters of Wiser, "happy talk" can be detrimental to group performance and productivity. Groups need to have people who are willing to voice their concerns and doubts. Too much "yes" spirit leads to complacency, which leads to the group repeating the same mistakes over and over.

The social pressures of group dynamics can also lead to unwanted behavioral issues such as polarization, during which people become more extremely committed to their points-of-view instead of being open to and influenced by their teammates. Another potential detriment to group productivity is the cascade effect, which is basically a type of mob mentality. Sunstein & Hastie (2015) therefore help readers to identify the problems associated with groupthink.

Whereas the first chapter introduces the issues and provides a road map for success, the second chapter offers more meat related to the heuristics that individuals and groups use. The first chapter shows why some members of a group might censor themselves. Having a low status in the group or in the society can lead to self-censorship, as can the perception that a person in power retains the attention and respect of other members.

In the second chapter, the authors go into depth about several types of schemas, mental maps, and heuristics. Like logical fallacies, these mental constructs can be picked apart and identified so that we can avoid the problems they cause. Availability heuristic, representative heuristic, egocentric bias, and conjunction error are just a few of the fallacies that can plague group behavior and impede productivity. Already I can think of numerous examples from personal experience that parallel the wisdom contained in Wiser. For example, I was in a group of four people.

Two of the four were detached from the group to the point where they were not participating much in discussions or involved in deliberations. One of the group members started to postpone meetings, instead preferring online communications. Another self-censored regularly and rarely offered her ideas or opinions. As a result, four people became more like two people. It was extremely difficult to get work done because we only had half the team.

I believe that some of the principles outlined in Wiser could have helped me to become a leader and establish ground rules and a normative culture. We could have created a group culture from the start, encouraging the two members who were not participating to discover meaning or a sense of purpose. We needed to encourage their participation by telling them that we need all voices on the table, and that their opinions mattered.

As Sunstein & Hastie (2015) point out, " the unfortunate consequence can be a loss of information to the group as a whole, thus ensuring that deliberating groups do far worse than they would if only they could aggregate the information held by group members," (Chapter 1, p. 16). It is also possible that I was falling pray to some of the biases outlined in Chapter 2, such as egocentric bias, in which I truly believe that other people see the world just as I do.

Instead of presuming that other people see things the same way, I should be open to different opinions and thus prevent problems.