Noah's team meets each week to discuss marketing issues and determine solutions. He has observed that the meeting dynamic is very ineffective. The same few people seem to push their ideas, and even though Noah can tell others don't necessarily agree, the group seems to go along with the more vocal members. Noah has also noticed that certain members seem to stand firm on specific assumptions or approaches regardless of what new information is presented. Describe two techniques Noah could use to aid the team in countering these group decision-making issues.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The two techniques used to counter groupthink and cognitive biases are devil's advocacy and dialectical inquiry.

Devil's advocacy is a critical analysis of a preferred alternative to ascertain its strengths and weaknesses. Typically one member of the decision-making group plays the role of devil's advocate. He critiques and challenges the way the group evaluated alternatives and chose one over the others. The purpose of devil's advocacy is to identify all the reasons that might make the preferred alternative unacceptable.

In a dialectical inquiry, two groups of managers are assigned to a problem, and each group is responsible for evaluating alternatives and selecting one of them. Top managers hear each group present its preferred alternative, and then each group critiques the other's position. During this debate, top managers challenge both groups' positions to uncover potential problems and perils associated with their solutions. The goal is to find an even better alternative course of action for the organization to adopt.