Decision-making is a process when a responsible person analyzes an issue and looks for possible variants of how to solve it. When a group of people is involved, a decision-making process becomes challenging. On the one hand, all the participants share the burden of responsibility, and they can unite their efforts to solve an issue.
On the other hand, finding a solution in this way can be difficult because team members can have opposite opinions, which will result in a conflict. Thus, teams can use brainstorming, nominal group technique, and Delphi method to decide on issues, while it is also necessary to take specific steps to avoid groupthink.
Firstly, brainstorming stands for verbal discussion of a problem when team members gather in a single place. They generate their ideas chaotically, and this technique often results in conflicts or in the fact that some members dominate over the others. Secondly, the nominal group method is an example of organized brainstorming. The group meeting has a moderator that asks separate members to present their speeches on the topic, which they have prepared in advance.
A discussion of the issues only begins after all the members have explained their ideas. Finally, the Delphi method is an anonymous decision-making approach that implies providing answers to questionnaires (Inamdar, 2019). This technique is useful because it allows team members to express their opinions free of the influence of their peers, which is essential for avoiding groupthink. Furthermore, it is impossible to eliminate this phenomenon by structuring meetings, engaging experts, and contributing to conflicts. It refers to the fact that conflicts are natural ways of finding ways of how to solve an issue.
In conclusion, it has been mentioned that team decision making implies both pros and cons. If a group wants to be productive, it is reasonable to use one of the existing techniques that help cope with a problem. However, these methods can also have some disadvantages, and groupthink is one of them. The information above demonstrates that some techniques tend to minimize its effect and that specific steps can be taken to avoid its adverse impact.
Reference
Inamdar, A. (2019). 7 ready to implement group decision making techniques for your team. Web.