Problem analysis begins with the deviation or problem statement and ends with the answer to the question:
why?
production blocking,
may forget your idea as you are waiting for your turn to speak
Components of the Abilene Paradox
public agreement on the situation even though privately they may not see the situation as a problem, group members disagree with the decision but believe that their feelings are in the minority, vocalizations are based upon misinterpretations of the group
Symptoms of Groupthink
failure to examineunderlying assumptions, illusion of invulnerability, believe that the group is inherently moral, rationalize any resistance to their assumptions us v them mentality, self-censorship,mind guards, stop the flow of info, illusion of unanim
Pros and Cons of group decision making
Pros: groups can generate more alternative solutions and can better defibe complex problems. Cons: groupthink can lead to incomplete definitions of problems, may only generate 1 or 2 clone type solutions, fail to reconsider alternatives, poor information
How do we avoid the confirming evidence trap?
play devils advocate or ask someone else to.Ask yourself; What's the strongest reason to make a different choice? The second strongest? The third?
Eight situational variables
Quality requirement,Commitment requirement, leaders information, problem structure, commitment probability, goal congruence, Subordinate conflict, subordinate information
What is the confirming evidence trap
This trap is the bias that leads us to seek out information to support our existing point of view while avoiding information that contradicts it.
Recallability trap
we belive that we recall frequent events more easily than infrequent ones and likely events more easily than unlikely events
Group dynamics
communications, group size, conflict handling,and group cohesion