Summary: The Rise Of The New Groupthink

     What is groupthink? There is a simple definition for it, but is it truly that simple? The term groupthink refers to the inclination of group members to have the same opinions and beliefs; it frequently leads to mistakes. It often occurs without an individual being aware of it. Conflict is considered to be a harmful element when related to groups, but conflict is good when considering groupthink because it helps to eliminate the existence of a groupthink. The explanation sounds simple enough, but it is more complex than the description given.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller, explains the marvels of witchcraft and the world of “magic”, which unravels a set of confusing disasters in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. While confronted between a choice of life and death, situations hastily get out of hand, and soon become uncontrollable. These events are based on true happenings that led to the writing of this play, which contains the themes mass hysteria, groupthink, and abuse of power. The vast world of witchcraft may not have seemed too intimidating, but it is proven that it’s more dangerous than one can truly imagine.

Throughout the history of the United States, groupthink has cluttered the country with questionable decisions by some of the most honorable leaders in history. Although high-level leaders show the most outstanding and shocking altercations of groupthink, this event can show up at a much lower level like a small group. Probably the most notable and recent culmination of groupthink, being the Iraqi War, provided the country with an onset of fear for an imminent threat regarding weapons of mass destruction within the Middle East. According to Weeks (2010), “One of the committee’s firm conclusions was that the Congress had

Stephen King was quoted as saying, “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” A plane crash is bad enough; throw into the mix that the plane crash landed in a vast desert far away from anyone and anything. The team showed great cohesiveness in its ability to get through the groupthink and group shift behaviors. In this paper, groupthink and group shift behaviors will be discussed. This paper will cover points to show how through both behaviors the group will remain cohesive and put aside any individual needs and focus more on the needs of the group. Even though the situation will be tough, the team will plan, find harmony and put their brains together to find ways to survive.

In Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson feels that a team should always keep a balance on who does what. In the text it stated, “It helped that Jobs was awed by Wozniak’s engineering wizardry, and Wozniak was awed by Jobs’s business drive.” (Isaacson 217). This evidence describes that Isaacson thinks that every member should have a role. This explains that Wozniak did most of the building while Jobs took care of business and getting tools. Jobs and Wozniak equally contributed in their work to accomplish great things.

“One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.” (Edwardo de Bono 2016). Susan Cain wrote the book Quiet which is about introverts as well as extroverts in today’s society. This chapter, chapter three, is about how working in groups instead of by yourself ultimately kills creativity along with everything that creativity brings to the table. Susan uses pathos, logos, ethos, values, and stakeholders to demonstrate her main ideas which are: solitude is essential for creativity which is a key trait in introverts and groupthink damages our society.

In this paper, I will use a personal experience in which my actions were greatly influenced by the pressure of groupthink to demonstrate my sociological knowledge and to further analyze the situation using Symbolic Interactionism. My experience with bullying and the role that I played in the situation is an excellent example of groupthink leading people to display uncharacteristic behaviors and make choices they would not have otherwise as an individual (Baker 2017).

From my experience, one situation I can think of where the “groupthink” phenomenon could be applied happened when I used to be a scribe/scribe trainer. Our leads had just hired a new group of scribes and prior to starting on the floor the trainees needed to complete a classroom training course covering medical terminology, understanding of the EMR template and then pass an examination. After that then they were able to start training shifts on the floor with an experienced scribe “shadowing” them. The first time scribing on the floor can be really daunting because some providers work very fast and they can be very particular (quality/length of HPI, what& where to document certain findings) which as a newbie you wouldn’t know unless you worked

People are quick to turn on their televisions or surf the web when the silence becomes unbearable. Solitude has a lot to offer despite the negative connotations it get. It gives us time to understand who we are. Solitude turn us into independent thinkers. People tend to forget that introverts are good listeners and can become better leaders than extroverts. Their passiveness can help avoid mistakes compared to extroverts aggressively pushing their ideas towards the group. Working in groups comes at a cost because of the need to fit in with the rest. We live in a world where solitude becomes less valuable as we crave things such as having a social life and lack the courage to express ourselves due to the constant thought of failure. Our world fails to realize that failure is what has led to such great success. Growing up with common phrases such as “work as a team” or “two heads are better than one” has led to generations of people believing that the best results come from working together. Proving that even from the start, we are taught that solitude is bad when in reality it allows us to think more clearly and come up with our own unique thoughts. We lose what makes us different and copy what others are doing. Therefore, we need to take a breather once in a while because solitude is always with us. We need to give solitude a chance in our lives or else we cannot be able to listen to the thoughts

Groupthink is not a new phenomenon. The idea of groupthink originally was coined by William H. Whyte (1952) in Fortune magazine:

Workspace Rough Draft     Today, roughly half of the workers are unsatisfied with their work environment. Contrary to popular belief, work environment plays a crucial role in assisting the worker. By putting workers in different settings, scientists observed a change in performance, focus, or teamwork. Although science convinces its audience with experimentation, Mirvis argues that many influential writers used the comfort of their bed to write (Mirvis 22). Each comes to the conclusion that people are more adapt to choosing a workplace that suits their needs.

As people, when confronted with a problem where a solution must be found, our ideal situation is to come up with the best possible one. To do this, we ideally gather the most knowledgeable, intelligent individuals into a group and attempt to derive the best solution to the problem. With the collection of these people, one would think that finding the best possible answer to the problem would be a rather simple task. However, what has happened in many situations is the complete opposite. Rather than finding the best possible solutions, many ideal, cohesive groups arrive at the worst possible answer largely due to problems in communication within the group. This is what we call the radical theory of

“We’re drawn to the image of the lone genius whose mystical moment of insight changes the world. But the lone genius is a myth; instead, it’s group genius that generates breakthrough innovation. When we collaborate, creativity unfolds across people; the sparks fly faster, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Yes! According to the author, “Private offices and cubicles are, increasingly, seen as the nostalgic stuff of Mad Men.” However, open-plan offices, are relate to lack of privacy, and distractions. The message behind those signs is need of creating balance. The idea is keep privacy, and open-environment together in the same concept; so then, with a calm, relaxed, and mindful environment, the employees can feel comfortable with both worlds. Meditation is powerful. Well-being is a vital need, and when this need is respected and nurtured, the creativity of employees will increase just

The elite is the selected few but does not reflex the needs of the masses