Groupthink Revisited

At the Sunday night (Dec 4th) meeting of the DO group, a pledge was requested of those present to refrain from negative comments outside the meeting and keep all discussion, both positive and negative, within the scheduled meetings.  

I stated that I would not make such a pledge. My reason (not discussed in the meeting) is that it violated three out of eight rules of Groupthink.  Groupthink is a mode of thinking which arises when concurrence-seeking behavior in a cohesive group becomes so dominant that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative approaches.  This is described in an earlier post.

The three violations in this request are: 1) self-censorship, 2) direct pressure on dissenters, and 3) self-appointed mind-guards.

In the group discussions following in Fast Freddie’s, a person, who had attended hundreds of meetings, noted he had never been to an official meeting that didn’t generate discussion afterward, both critical and supportive of proposals.  That has been my experience.