Everybody knows Kodak.
The company who invented the analog camera and was the industry leader for almost 100 years (!) on films and photo.
Kodak was also the company that invented the first digital camera in 1975 (by their engineer Steve Sasson). The initial reaction of Kodak to the invention was “that’s cute, but don’t tell anyone about it”.
Kodak chose not to further explore the digital camera business, since they were busy exploiting the analog camera business.
Kodak failed to overcome that decision and even in 2006, their CEO stated “Most digital cameras are dinosaurs, not evolving as fast as the ecosystem to which they belong.”
Eventually, Kodak missed the boat and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
When popularity takes priority over responsibility, people tend to conform to ideas and opinions that eventually results in making substandard decisions as a group; a phenomenon called ‘groupthink’.
The definition of ‘groupthink’ is “the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group, resulting typically in unchallenged, poor-quality decision making”.
The list of multinational companies that missed the boat continues with amongst others Nokia, Blackberry and Netscape.
The concept of ‘groupthink’ goes beyond the typical corporate board room. For an example in daily life, please check out this video:
To avoid groupthink – and enable outstanding decision making – there are 3 critical ingredients:
- Encourage all relevant stakeholders to voice their opinion; all members should be asked for relevant input – even if this is not favored by the majority. For example, you can let all team members submit their opinion in private.
- Make the decision-making team as diverse as possible; invite independent people who have no other interest than adding ideas and improve the end result of the decision.
- As a leader, you play a critical role in decision making. Leaders who avoid to advocate particular preferences, lead groups to improved levels of decision making.
If you want to know how your company can avoid groupthink and enable outstanding decision making, please contact me for more info.
Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash
Everybody knows Kodak.
The company who invented the analog camera and was the industry leader for almost 100 years (!) on films and photo.
Kodak was also the company that invented the first digital camera in 1975 (by their engineer Steve Sasson). The initial reaction of Kodak to the invention was “that’s cute, but don’t tell anyone about it”.
Kodak chose not to further explore the digital camera business, since they were busy exploiting the analog camera business.
Kodak failed to overcome that decision and even in 2006, their CEO stated “Most digital cameras are dinosaurs, not evolving as fast as the ecosystem to which they belong.”
Eventually, Kodak missed the boat and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
When popularity takes priority over responsibility, people tend to conform to ideas and opinions that eventually results in making substandard decisions as a group; a phenomenon called ‘groupthink’.
The definition of ‘groupthink’ is “the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group, resulting typically in unchallenged, poor-quality decision making”.
The list of multinational companies that missed the boat continues with amongst others Nokia, Blackberry and Netscape.
The concept of ‘groupthink’ goes beyond the typical corporate board room. For an example in daily life, please check out this video:
To avoid groupthink – and enable outstanding decision making – there are 3 critical ingredients:
- Encourage all relevant stakeholders to voice their opinion; all members should be asked for relevant input – even if this is not favored by the majority. For example, you can let all team members submit their opinion in private.
- Make the decision-making team as diverse as possible; invite independent people who have no other interest than adding ideas and improve the end result of the decision.
- As a leader, you play a critical role in decision making. Leaders who avoid to advocate particular preferences, lead groups to improved levels of decision making.
If you want to know how your company can avoid groupthink and enable outstanding decision making, please contact me for more info.
Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash
