The Hidden Cost of Team Harmony

Sometimes teams just gel. It just seems that their brains are all coupled at the biological level - you can finish each other's thoughts because the team has trust and is open with each other.

This is both a blessing and on occasion... a problem.

Visualize a team brainstorming session. The team has gathered to solve a business issue that has plagued the company for weeks. Ideas come at a rapid pace, and things move so smoothly that you come up with a consensus of action within 30 minutes. Boom - done - next task!

On the surface, it seems like a perfectly efficient outcome.

However, the problem is that there is a good chance - the ideas and solutions presented in the session steered the outcome towards a groupthink direction from a very early stage - essentially creating a channel for the conversation to flow.

The cause of this inadvertently happening is that members of the group - appreciating the hard-earned social harmony and efficiency of the group - may have kept quiet their potential reservations and conflicting ideas, not wanting to disrupt the social cohesion of the group. This is a very real possibility, as human beings are hardwired to seek social acceptance, and science has shown that the neural circuitry affected by a social threat resembles that affected by physical threats.

To avoid this, try this simple tactic at the end of your next brainstorming session.

Have each member of the group go to a corner of the room and write down on an index card 3 reasons why they think the agreed-upon solution or direction may not work. Then collect the cards and read the answers out loud anonymously.

Chances are, a few concerns that may have been suppressed during the group session will pop up.

Reconvene as a group and spend 10-15 minutes discussing the concerns that surfaced.

By making this a habit, you will either reinforce your original plans, identify a better solution, or even avoid a potential disaster resulting from ideas not brought out by team members not wanting to negatively impact the social order.