Distinguish between brainstorming and groupthink. How are they related? Provide an example of each.
What will be an ideal response?
Student answers will vary but should demonstrate understanding of brainstorming and groupthink. A sample answer follows.
Brainstorming is the best-known activity that teams use to foster creative behavior. Generally speaking, brainstorming involves a face-to-face meeting of team members in which each offers as many ideas as possible about some focal problem or issue. In highly cohesive teams, members may try to maintain harmony by striving toward consensus on issues without ever offering, seeking, or seriously considering alternative viewpoints and perspectives. This drive toward conformity at the expense of other team priorities is called groupthink and is thought to be associated with feelings of overconfidence about the team's capabilities. When groupthink occurs in brainstorming sessions, it will reduce the creativity of suggestions.
An example of brainstorming would be a product development team at a software company sitting around a conference table, calling out ideas for a new app as quickly as they can in the hopes of coming up with new or innovative ideas. An example of groupthink is the idea held by government regulators that certain financial institution are "too big to fail." If all regulators believe this, then they cannot admit the possibility-as the world learned in 2008-that many large banks are indeed capable of failing.
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