Overcoming Groupthink
Gary Wong, Consultant, Canada, SIG Leader
This is a great example. Kennedy had just gone through the Bay of Pigs Invasion disaster and I'm sure he didn't want to have similar
Groupthink experience.
Another Groupthink situation was the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. Morton Thiokol and NASA engineers knew about the "O"-ring problems months before. Fearing a negative press release if the launch was delayed, Management made the decision to go ahead.
There had been a lot of Six Thinking Hats training done at NASA. But Groupthink prevailed.
The lesson we can learn: Thinking Hats can be an effective anti-Groupthink approach, providing the organizational culture supports it.
