26-05-2025
Think And Lead Outside-In To Counter Groupthink And Insular Cultures
Groupthink
Insular cultures produce groupthink, don't evolve as fast as others, and thus pose an existential threat to organizations. Instead, think and lead from the outside-in to ensure your culture and organization continue to evolve and thrive.
Irving Janis explained that groupthink happens when group pressures and a drive for unanimity suppress dissent and critical evaluation. One example is the disastrous decision to launch the space shuttle Challenger, reenacted for this video.
As I wrote earlier, culture is the collective character of the individuals in an organization. Organizations are made up of individuals, each with their own character. The way they behave together, relate to each other, the attitudes and values they share, and the environment they create is the organization's culture.
In his recent book, 'On Character: Choices that Define a Life,' Stan McChrystal argues that character is a personal choice made up of a combination of convictions and discipline. In his words, 'Convictions set the direction of our intentions, but discipline provides the impetus to move' – especially when the choices are hard. For example, 'When our belonging to a group is on the line, many of us will say or do things we otherwise wouldn't.'
He then told me that, 'In working on our book on Risk, we studied the Bay of Pigs and Janis' conclusions about Groupthink. Most of us have seen it many times and I'd add that the pressures of a hierarchical structure (like the White House, Army, or many Corporations) makes it easy to fall into – a huge trap.'
Thus, groupthink behavior happens in organizations with cultures with a bias to work with people just like us (importance of being accepted by the group,) and a responsive/avoid basic failure attitude (as opposed to openness to making intelligent failures while learning through experiments.)
As Janis puts it, these organizations and groups tend to:
The ultimate issue is Darwinian.
Those focused on being accepted by the group and afraid to experiment are, almost by definition, not responsive to changes, not evolving, and not going to survive as others evolve to serve customers better.
Outside-in thinking is closely related to outside-in leadership. Outside-in leaders know that the true measure of success is not in the organizations, infrastructure or people they attract and develop, but in what those organizations, infrastructure and people get done for others. They start by thinking about those others and the conditions they face.
This should play out differently depending upon the core focus of your organization. If your organization is focused on:
Get to the ground truth
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, described the need for leaders to know 'ground truth.' This is unvarnished, unfiltered truth about the harsh reality. Powell got his from chaplains, sergeants major, inspectors general, and normal soldiers.
Get your ground truth from data, facts, and first-line supervisors. They are close enough to the front lines to know the truth, one step back so they can see the forest and not just the trees, and far enough away from you not to be afraid of you.
Get it from your customers (service-focused,) outside innovators (design), suppliers (production,) and others solving similar problems (delivery/distribution.)
Seed dissent
Make sure your groups have people that will dissent – and protect them. These could be people that play Devil's advocate or, like Shakespeare's fools, challenge ideas and thinking.
Conduct double skip-level lunches
Identify the top-box, highest-rated performers three levels below you. Set up one-on-one lunches with them. Read their reviews just before each lunch. Greet them and say, 'I've read your review. You're doing amazing things. I'd love to learn more about what you're doing.'
Just that. Then listen. They'll feel great. You'll learn what good is. They'll tell you the truth about what they think. The people three levels down aren't part of your 'group' and, like front line supervisors, are too far away from you to be afraid.
Click here for a categorized list of my Forbes articles (of which this is #946)
