Think Outside the Box

I recently read an article called Great Minds Don't think alike by Ray Silverstein. In it, Mr. Silverstein talks about how it is easy to hire people who think like you...everyone agrees and there are no conflicts. But really, this type of thinking is detrimental to growth and innovation. Silverstein says that in the workplace, collaboration is must. He says that to do this, we can encourage and reward new ideas, take action against negativity, let others be in charge, and bring in people from diverse backgrounds.

This article made me think about how things in the past have been negatively impacted because everyone just went along with the group, and agreed blindly to whatever the status quo proposed...groupthink. In fact, I can't think of any event in history where groupthink was a positive thing. I think of how a few girls fueled the crazy witch hunts in Salem in 1692 that ended in the lynching of innocent people and how thousands of people were senselessly killed in the Holocaust, blindly following orders to torture other human beings. I think of how engineers have failed with the crash of the Challenger shuttle and the sinking of the Titanic. Did one person not think differently, ask why, or propose better ideas for construction? Or how about with things like cults or the Pregnancy Pact (where a group of teenage girls agreed to all have babies together before even graduating high school). How do people rationalize killing themselves in the name of religion or throwing away their future at the thought of "playing mommy."

Groupthink, occurs when people don't want to shake things up, when they attempt to minimize conflict by not voicing or evaluating new ideas. Everything runs smoothly when we are in agreement, but is that always a good thing? History certainly says no.

So, my advice for the day:

BREAK OUT OF YOUR BOX!!