Groupthink vs The Wisdom of Crowds

I have recently been reading a lot about the phenomenon of ‘groupthink’ which is described by Irving Janis as “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when members strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action” in other words people in a group commit to decisions they don’t necessarily agree with in order to avoid creating emotional tension or conflict with their colleagues. It is a fascinating topic and illustrated by a number of ‘classic’ case studies such as the ‘Bay of Pigs’ scenario in the 1960s when the US almost invaded Cuba over the positioning of Soviet missiles there, potentially leading to a nuclear face-off. Another well-documented example of groupthink was the Challenger space-shuttle tragedy which involved the deaths of seven astronauts just over a minute after take-off in what turned out to be an entirely preventable (because clearly anticipated) disaster involving the low temperature-related failure of rubber sealing rings in one of the solid fuel booster rockets.

The Challenger case is interesting for me not just because of the ‘groupthink’ dimension but because it illustrates the power of political influence on technical decision-making. It also illustrates the tension between ‘groupthink’ and what has become known as ‘the wisdom of crowds’ (in which it is argued that collective decisions are likely to be more effective than individual decisions because they take into account a wide range of knowledge, wisdom and experience). I’m interested in where the boundary between crowd wisdom and groupthink lies and what prevents one slipping into the other. I think the answer must lie somewhere in the idea of diversity. For example, a diverse team is less likely to become cozy and avoid emotional tension, I think. A diverse team is also likely to have a range of interesting perspectives on complex problems which should, or so the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ proponents tell us, lead to better decisions.

All of this begs an important point about the context and consequences of the decision. In terms of consequences we might reasonably think that the potential for loss of human life is the most important conceivable bottom line. Tragically, the Challenger space shuttle and countless military debacles show that fear of losing face, defending careers and simply avoiding conflict with colleagues seem to be even more important.

Jazz improvisation and organisational learning

Although it may sound like an unlikely combination (that happens to bring together two of my key interests) I’m not the only person to think that jazz improvisation may provide us with some insights into the way effective teams and organisations work and learn. The tired metaphor of an organisation being like an orchestra doesn’t really fit present-day realities. Orchestras work from detailed scores and the analogy of organisations working from predictable strategic plans no longer seems relevant when our working environments are so unpredictable that flexibility and responsiveness are what’s needed. But start thinking about organisations as jazz groups made of individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to improvise around a basic tune, able to solo when necessary and ‘comp’ when others take the spotlight and aha! now we are getting somewhere. When my colleague Moira Halliday suggested I bring these two passions together I assumed few others would have given much thought to the juxtaposition of jazz improvisation and organisations. How wrong I was. Not only has a lot been written about it but there was even a conference devoted to Jazz and OD in 1996 with jazz musicians playing and speaking about the nature of improvisation. I really wish I had been there. One of the speakers/musicians was Ken Peplowski who I saw at the wonderful Islay Jazz Festival in Scotland.

I’m reading about jazz improvisation at the moment in order to see what insights from that discipline might apply to organisational learning. The possibilities seem very fruitful. I’m also reading what others have said about jazz and OD. A particularly stimulating paper entitled Creativity and Improvisation in Jazz and Organizations: Implications for Organizational Learning’ was written in 1998 by Frank Barrett (who is both a professional jazz musician and OD consultant) You can download it here.

The whole nature of metaphor as a way of creating meaning and understanding complexity in organisations is beautifully explored by one of our Framework Community members, Bill Sterland, in his publication ‘Metaphor and Analogy‘.

To give you an idea of what can be achieved through improvisation in jazz check out Pat Metheny’s Quartet playing ‘Song for Bilbao’ on YouTube. What would it feel like to work in a team with that amount of energy, creativity and communication?

Framework Community Social Network

I’m very excited about the launch of the new Framework Community social network site. I set up the network a couple of months ago and we have been testing it out over the past weeks to get it ready for today’s launch. Invitations have gone out to the seventy existing Community members and the seventy people who subscribe to our E-News. People started signing up within minutes of receiving the invitation so that’s a good sign.

At present membership of the network is by invitation. Anyone interested in joining can send me an email  bruce@framework.org.uk

I hope the network will evolve into a real learning community. There is potential for all kinds of interesting possibilities as the current Community Members are located all over the world.

Training for Transition

Yesterday and the day before I attended a two day course on Training for Transition. The Transition movement has evolved as a community-based response to the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change. The idea behind Transition is that communities build their resilience to deal with the effects of climate change and actively reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. The course brought together around 30 people from all over Scotland in the beautiful setting of the Centre for Stewardship at Falkland in Fife (quite close to where I live).

With the help of our two excellent facilitators we explored the challenges of peak oil and climate change, developed our understanding of the psychology of behaviour change, exchanged experiences, supported each other, learned what motivated each of us to take action on these issues and made personal and group action plans. It was a wonderfully stimulating experience and particularly enjoyable to be a participant rather than a facilitator for a change!

I was particularly interested in our sessions on individual change and I was impressed by the sensitive way in which the difficulties of making changes were explained in the models that were introduced to us. It seemed such a contrast to the somewhat dismissive way that those genuine difficulties in making changes are often explained away in management literature – as ‘resistance’ that needs to be ‘overcome’.

I was also very interested to learn about experiences of difficult group dynamics and how these problems are addressed in groups where there is no formal hierarchy and where consensus decision-making – no matter how difficult to achieve at times – is held on to as an expression of deeply held values about social equality. Again, so different from most conventional organisations.

But most important for me was the opportunity to understand my own motivation for change and the importance of making connections with others to help this come about. Having the opportunity to share with and learn from others was deeply reassuring in the face of what can easily be seen as insurmountable problems – an uplifting example of the power of community.

Consensus decision making

On Saturday I will be facilitating the Annual General Meeting of the North Howe Transition Toun (NHTT) in Fife, Scotland. By the way, ‘toun’ is not a mis-spelling. It is an old Scots word for a small settlement or group of settlements. The NHTT is one of a growing number of Transition organisations that are aiming to address issues of peak oil and climate change at a local level. The values of NHTT place an important emphasis on consensus decision-making and it is my role to ensure that the AGM is facilitated using a consensual approach. Thanks to the members of the NHTT I have come across some excellent resources for community groups wishing to put into practice the principles of participatory, consensus-based decision making. Seeds for Change have a really excellent resource library of tools for organising and facilitating energising meetings. Coop Tools provide an intriguing resource called ‘The Dotmocracy Handbook’ which I have not yet tried but looks fun as a way of helping large groups to prioritise their ideas.

Toolkit for Organisational Change

Last week I was facilitating a course in Oxford entitled ‘Toolkit for Organisational Change’. It’s a new three-day course that I designed for INTRAC as a ‘follow up’ to the five day Organisational Development course I have run since 2001. Despite the ‘raw edges’, the Toolkit course got positive feedback from the small group of six participants who attended. It was really interesting to hear them share their case-studies many of which concerned ‘live’ change processes that are going on in their respective organisations.

One issue that came over very strongly from the cases is the complex nature of the changes that organisations are dealing with. Other important points to emerge from the discussions were the particular challenges involved in facilitating change in large decentralised organisations and organisational partnerships. Many of the more conventional approaches to managing change assume that managers have control over the change process. The reality faced by organisations in civil society is that they are more likely to have influence rather than control over the change process. The change agents who support (but do not manage) change have an even more difficult task.

The course discussions have prompted me to start my own research into complex change in decentralised organisations. I will post what emerges from this and include links to interesting articles and materials when I come across them.

WWF Partnership Toolbox

About eight years ago I worked with Rod Sterne of the environmental organisation WWF to develop a series of tools on partnerships between organisations. The booklet we produced has been used over the years by many organisations in the UK and beyond. Due to its continuing popularity WWF has given it a makeover and published it on their website as The Partnership Toolbox.

Scotland leads the way on climate change

I recently attended a talk given by Dr Richard Dixon, Director of WWF Scotland, at ‘The Big Tent’ environmental festival. In his presentation Richard described the lobbying work that went into the creation of the developed world’s most progressive Climate Change legislation: The Climate Change (Scotland) Act. He explained “Scotland may be a small nation, but it has proved … that it is prepared to stand up and be counted. This new law sets a benchmark that every industrialised country will need to live up to. If Scotland can show this level of ambition then so can plenty of others.” With Scotland being in the news recently for its catastrophic banking blunders, it is good to be able to report on some good news for a change. I hope that the Scottish legislation provides some valuable leverage at the next round of climate talks in Copenagen later this year.

Reflective practice at Framework

As you may know, I belong to a collective of consultants called Framework which is based in the UK and works with not-for-profit organizations worldwide. Framework currently has a membership of six consultant practitioners all of whom are involved in organizational development and capacity development work. We usually work individually but sometimes work together in pairs or larger teams on more complex contracts. Each of us is self-employed and of equal status in the collective. There is no management hierarchy. The key organizing principle in Framework is mutual accountability for high quality work through shared values and peer supervision.

Over more than twenty years, Framework has developed methods for enabling reflective practice and experiential learning. The three most valued methods used by the collective are peer supervision, annual reviews and biannual retreats. These methods are very influential in shaping the identity of Framework as a learning organization because each method provides a powerful platform for reflection and learning before, during and after the contractual work with clients. The methods work in the following way.

Peer supervision involves a circular arrangement with each of us supervising a colleague and, in turn, being supervised by another colleague. As Framework colleagues are geographically spread across the UK, most of the monthly sessions are conducted using Skype (more recently with video-conferencing). The consultant who is the subject (the supervisee) determines the agenda for how the time is spent during each 60-90 minute session. In practice, sessions focus mainly on the progress of work with clients and wider practice issues arising from this. A number of tools are used to facilitate reflection and learning. The supervisee usually prepares an update on the progress made in the work under discussion prior to the session using a list of questions devised to stimulate self-reflection. The update may be shared with the supervisor in advance but more often is simply used at the time to guide discussion. Sometimes the supervisee will prepare a short critical incident analysis for a piece of work and share this with the supervisor. The close, trusting relationship that develops between peers means that very little is ‘out of bounds’ for discussion and, as a result, the discussions range from practical strategies for dealing with challenges that arise in the work with clients to deeper issues of self-awareness. Supervisory relationships are changed every year to 18 months to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to supervise and be supervised by everyone else in the collective. This helps to strengthen the collective as a team and exposes all the consultants to a range of supervision styles and professional development opportunities.

Annual review involves each consultant and their supervisor in an annual in-depth discussion lasting two to three hours. Annual reviews have a number of purposes including assessing the quality of work undertaken with clients; increasing self-awareness; guiding professional development and contributing to Framework’s organisational learning and development. As part of the preparation for the review, the supervisor interviews three of the consultant’s recent clients using an agreed list of questions to receive first-hand feedback about the quality of the consultant’s work and the working relationship they developed. The feedback is discussed with the consultant, usually after the consultant is asked to anticipate what clients have said about them. After the discussion, the consultant prepares a list of ‘Intentions’ related to work with clients, professional and personal development, work portfolio and contribution to Framework’s development as a collective.

Framework holds two residential ‘retreats’ each year. The retreats cover two days of work time over a three day period. The retreats involve all Framework consultants and attendance is obligatory. In practice, the retreats are a highly valued part of Framework membership and everyone looks forward to the time together with great anticipation. The venues for the retreats are carefully chosen to provide a relaxing and supportive environment. Retreats provide an opportunity for information exchange, skill-sharing, knowledge development and in-depth reflection on work with clients. Part of the time is also allocated to decision-making about collective strategy and marketing but it is the in-depth discussion of work and work practices that provides the essential focus of the retreats. Two consultants plan each retreat in discussion with their colleagues. Everyone attending prepares a presentation based on a piece of current or recently-completed work with a client. Presentations involve practical activities such as action-learning, coaching, discussion and role play. Some sessions are used as ‘peer assists’ to develop strategies for work in progress; some take the form of ‘clinics’ where relevant experiences are exchanged to overcome problems of ‘stuckness’ in a piece of work and other sessions are used to share new practices or to identify what has been learned from a recently completed contract that may be of value in future contracts.

Peer supervision, annual review and biannual retreats provide a supportive environment for Framework consultants to reflect on and learn from their own and each other’s practice. The methods work because of the strong, trusting and challenging relationships that evolve between colleagues. We expect each other to speak from the heart as well as the mind: emotional and spiritual issues are as likely to enter discussions about capacity development as more conventional professional concerns. Together, the three methods provide a nurturing and enquiring environment where a deep level of reflection on practice is not just possible but is a required part of being a Framework practitioner.

Organisational Learning in Kalimpong, West Bengal

I recently returned from two weeks in Kalimpong near Darjeeling in West Bengal, India. I was invited by SEARCH Nepal to facilitate a workshop on organisational learning with 19 staff members from RDRS (a large and renowned NGO based in Rangpur Dinajpur in Bangladesh).

It was a great opportunity to renew my relationship with RDRS after 12 years and to work alongside Deepak Tamang from SEARCH Nepal who I have known for 18 years.

During the five-day workshop we used a range of participatory exercises to examine RDRS’s current systems and structures for learning and a combination of exercises and presentations to explore learning in teams; reflective practice; learning from evaluation and developing a learning strategy. At the end of each day, we all spent some quiet time using our journals to reflect on what we had done and what we had learned. Participants then gathered in small ‘home groups’ to discuss what had gone well, what could be improved and ideas for the remaining workshop sessions. Representatives from each of the four home groups then met together with Deepak and me to share their feedback. In this way we as facilitators could monitor how things were going and adapt our plans to incorporate participants’ ideas or spend more time on subjects that needed further exploration.

The workshop was intense and lively and the participants found a team exercise called ‘Traffic Jam’ particularly enlightening as it provided a ‘hands-on’ opportunity to examine learning within and between teams. By the end of the workshop RDRS had identified what they see as the seven main purposes of learning in their organisation. Under each of the seven purposes they identified what they already do well and some areas for improvement and innovation. By piecing together the outputs from the various activities, they had also developed the skeleton of an organisational learning strategy.

It wasn’t all hard work and we took one day off to visit nearby Darjeeling, on the way visiting the house of the great poet and polymath Rabindranath Tagore in Mongpoo. Tagore is best known for his poetry and painting but he also developed an inspiring and holistic approach to education and learning which is clear from the following poem:

Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high,
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken
up into fragments by narrow domestic
walls;
Where words come out from the
depth of truth;
Where tireless striving
stretches its arms towards
perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward
by thee into ever-widening
thought and action–
into that heaven of freedom,
my Father,
Let my country awake.

For a very interesting article on Tagore’s approach to education in which the poem above is quoted I recommend visiting the InfEd web page on Tagore.

Oh, and one final mention is due to the Park Hotel in Kalimpong which provided a modest but charming venue with attentive service and beautiful surroundings.