How to Steer Clear of Groupthink

by Jennifer Mueller, Sarah Harvey and Alec Levenson

March 7, 2022

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Summary.

When organizations need to solve a problem, they often create a task force, selection panel, or steering/advisory committee. These groups are tasked with developing consensus around new ideas, such as procedures, policies, products, or services.

Jennifer Mueller is a professor of management at the Knauss School of Business, University of San Diego. She studies how managers, leaders and teams can overcome a bias against novel ideas to promote organizational innovation and renewal. Jennifer is the author of many articles and books including Creative Change: Why We Resist It … How We Can Embrace It. She holds a PhD in Social and Developmental Psychology from Brandeis University.

Sarah Harvey is an associate professor at the UCL School of Management, University College London. Sarah studies creativity and the creative process, in particular the dynamic ways that members of diverse or interdisciplinary groups work together to integrate knowledge and develop new ideas. She holds a PhD in Organizational Behavior from the London Business School.

Alec Levenson is senior research scientist, Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. His action research and consulting work with companies applies the principles of organization design, job design, human capital analytics and strategic talent management. He helps optimize performance across jobs, teams and end-to-end business processes to improve operating model alignment and strategy execution.

Read more on Collaboration and teams or related topics Cognitive bias, Innovation, Experimentation, Disruptive innovation and Decision making and problem solving

How to Steer Clear of Groupthink

Summary.

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