On Sunday, as you do, I had a lively debate with a senior journalist from the Sunday Telegraph. She had written another piece challenging the ever-widening influence of the state as its tentacles wrap themselves around almost every part of our lives. The existential crisis we now face is impacting business on an unprecedented level. Every conversation I have with those at the coal face is broadly similar: why make a decision today that could be justifiably postponed until next year? Or why don’t we wait until when the vaccine gets rolled out?
The simple fact is we could be waiting much longer than we think. Shareholders are very demanding at the best of times, but with the markets back to pre-covid levels, the scrutiny of performance was ever thus, and then some.
Revenue Growth is now understandably back on the agenda for the vast majority of business leaders. As organisations enter their planning phase to return to growth in 2021, desperate times mean radical change is required. Doing the same as you did 12 months ago isn’t going to cut it.
I asked the following question on Sunday:
“why is it that most of the best writers and observers of this existential crisis are women?”.
The response was both interesting and I guess, obvious:
“Women are less inclined to fall for Groupthink, and their perspective tends to include more sense of the wider human condition.”
Groupthink isn’t new. It isn’t necessarily gender based either. The term “was coined by social psychologist Irving Janis in 1972. It occurs when a collective of individuals arrive at consensus of thought not because of any critical reasoning, or consideration of alternatives, but because there is a common desire not to be controversial or have a differing view to “consensus”.
In 2020, there have been many decisions made that could be attributed to Groupthink: Who doesn’t take a 30-mile drive to test their eyesight or use inaccurate or out of date data to underpin critical decision making for example? It’s obvious to those in the group that is the right course of action, but equally absurd to the rest of us to witness the re-enforcement of the decision with little logic whatsoever.
Better to go down with the ship than question its buoyancy.
However, trawl through the midst of time and similar examples can easily be found. When the Challenger Space Shuttle catastrophically crashed in 1986 with fatal consequences, it transpired that there was awareness of some part malfunction, but engineers pressed ahead with the launch anyway to avoid negative publicity. Even this week with the inevitable but spectacular demise of The Arcadia Group, the owner and board seemed oblivious to the fact that minimal online presence was only going to end very badly.
Throughout my career, I have assembled a fair few Sales teams and more latterly, Leadership Teams. I have always tended to shy away from hiring people like me, not because as my late mother used to say, “they broke the mould when they made you” (and she wasn’t paying me a compliment!) but because I always look for a different perspective. Free thinking is a hugely important asset in any Leadership team in my experience. Managing and channelling that free thinking can be hugely challenging, particularly during monthly meetings, but providing the operational framework is put in place, innovation and problem solving is achieved much more readily.
To achieve Sales Transformation leading to revenue growth in 2021 it is going to take a different approach for many organisations. If you succumb to Groupthink you will undoubtedly pat yourself on the back as you preserve that cohesiveness and we’re in it together modus operandi, but there is a danger that false optimism will give away to invulnerability and over confidence. New ideas will be suppressed as leadership team members are keen to belong and not challenge past assumptions. Just because something worked well in 2019, or even this year, doesn’t mean it will in 2021.
I know you know this, but it shouldn’t surprise you that most Business Planning Meetings I have ever seen start off like this and at least 50% conclude with the same fundamental perpetuated errors!
Avoiding Groupthink
So, how do you avoid Groupthink? First of all, the quest for diversity is not just a moral and ethical issue, it is also about best business practice. Fill your team with dusty, white, middle aged men from a particular background and when the conversation comes round to the Corporate Hospitality Programme for the year, you will find it populated with Golf, Rugby and Wimbledon as I once did, ever slumping lower in my chair. “What’s not to like?” Some of you may well be asking. Not a lot unless you want to alienate about 80% of your clients and prospects.
Equally, a preponderance of youth and inexperience in isolation is also not necessarily a recipe for success during a crisis as some organisations are belatedly discovering. It is difficult to learn and prosper at the same time if you are all of a similar age, experience level and mindset.
Hiring the right balance of people is key and when I assess any Sales Organisation to understand their potential growth inhibitors, I look at the Leadership Team and its composition first. If members are similar in background and experience and there is a generally harmonious team with a degree of isolation from the “real world” then Groupthink can be a real problem.
It’s a bit like the debate this week regarding what constitutes a “substantial meal”. For some it’s a scotch egg, for others it would have to include a sandwich at least and maybe even some slices of beetroot. When those making the decisions rarely if ever venture into a Public House and don’t understand the consequences of their decisions, then discord will ultimately result if not challenged by a wider, more representative group. Consensus becomes the tyranny that binds the group together but it is unlikely to engender the right decisions in this context at least.
“Groupthink leads to bad decisions because they tend to ignore problems with the group’s decisions and discount outsiders.” Phil McKinney ex CTO Hewlet Packard
10 Inhibitors to Groupthink
Based on Janis’ “symptoms” I offer 10 recommendations to avoid it:
- Ensure the composition of your Sales Team has a broad mix of gender, age and ethnic background. Bring in outsiders if necessary.
- Avoid excessive optimism: a good dose of realism is a key imperative in any organisation, not least in Sales!
- Avoid Collective rationalization: debate even disagreement is healthy! It will lead to better decisions.
- Ensure you have inherent morality: If it isn’t right ethically or morally don’t do it, no matter how strong the collective feeling is!
- Challenge the Stereotyping of negativity around alternative approaches. Consider the “what if” of alternative approaches, no matter how outlandish they may first appear.
- Don’t apply direct pressure on dissenters: If members disagree discuss why.
- Don’t engage in Self-censorship: Doubts and deviations from those perceived need to be allowed to be discussed.
- Avoid the Illusion of unanimity: Quite often the defacto and majority viewpoint may not be that when placed under scrutiny.
- Avoid Self-appointed ‘mindguards’: Some members of a leadership team will shield the group and leader of information that does not fit the cohesive view.
- Above all provide a constructive framework for discussion with regular check ins and a format to ensure all viewpoints are captured. “Stop/Start/Continue” brainstorm works well in even the most entrenched of teams!
Groupthink in any situation can be dysfunctional at best and extremely destructive in certain situations. There is a huge amount of focus, particularly in large organisations to engender better team working, often at an offsite meeting. (Who knows what the DVLA achieved at their event at Bristol Zoo 12 months ago for example?).
Teams are undoubtedly the most effective with a common cause and a degree of harmony. However in business, and in sales in particular, there needs to be an opportunity for open, transparent challenge and discussion without consequences. Familarity breeds complacency whilst outsiders bring challenge and fresh ideas. The return to revenue growth in 2021 is going to be the biggest challenge some sales leaders have ever faced. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to start looking at your inhibitors to growth. As you embark upon your planning process, make sure that you are putting in place the opportunity for your Sales Leaders to challenge not just each other, but stakeholders from across the organisation.
Imagine a scenario where you all think the same, you validate publicy the mistakes that team members have made no matter how ludicrous they appear, or you use data to underpin decisions that are hopelessly out of date. As failure takes hold your views and position become more entrenched and performance drops to a new low, you cannot change the course of action because there are no alternative points of view.
Terrifying isn’t it? But, not as outrageous as perhaps you once thought!
DWSL remove the Inhibitors to Growth to enable your Sales Transformation and ensure Revenue Growth. In our last major assignment we delivered an incremental €2m of revenue €500k of Gross Margin.
