Why Teams Make Bad Decisions
Are more heads really better than one? Most of the time, groups can accomplish far more than a lone individual. For instance, large projects usually require a diverse range of skills to be successfully completed, and few businesses grow substantially without significant teamwork. But, perhaps surprisingly, there's at least one very important task where more heads can be worse than one: making decisions.
Wait a second—shouldn't a group make better decisions than an individual? After all, each team member brings in their unique background and expertise to the table and can even call each other out on their cognitive biases. This might sound great in theory… but in practice, it often doesn't work out that way.
So, what exactly goes wrong with group decision-making? Today, we’ll discuss three of the biggest challenges:
- Some people dominate the discussion
- Social status warps decision-making
- Group opinions can become artificially polarized
For each challenge, we'll also talk about strategies and approaches that you can use to improve outcomes when you're making decisions as a team.
References
- Simler, K., & Hanson, R. (2018). The elephant in the brain: Hidden motives in everyday life. Oxford University Press.
- DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of personality and social psychology, 93(5), 880.
- De Raad, B., & Mlacic, B. (2015). Big five factor model, theory and structure. International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences, 2(2), 559-566.
- Isenberg, D. J. (1986). Group polarization: A critical review and meta-analysis. Journal of personality and social psychology, 50(6), 1141.
- PersonalityMap. (2024). Extraversion (Big 5 personality composite score). PersonalityMap.io. https://personalitymap.io/?search=extraversion+%28Big+5+personality+composite+score%29
- Yamaguchi, S. (2023). Why are there so many extreme opinions online?: An empirical, comparative analysis of Japan, Korea and the USA. Online information review, 47(1), 1-19.
About the Author
Spencer Greenberg
Spencer Greenberg is an entrepreneur and mathematician with a focus on improving human well-being. He's the founder of ClearerThinking.org, which provides 80 free, digital tools to help people make better decisions and improve their lives, as well as the host of the Clearer Thinking podcast. Spencer is also the founder of Spark Wave, an organization that conducts psychology research and builds psychology-related products designed to help benefit the world. Spencer has a Ph.D. in applied math from New York University, with a specialty in machine learning. Spencer's work has been featured by numerous major media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, the Independent, the New York Times, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Fast Company, and the Financial Times.
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