The authority to shoot yourself in the foot.
People with power, influence and autonomy, sitting around a table making decisions that have major implications for a company, employees and wider society. This is the case for just about every executive team or the board of a large corporation.
So, what can be learnt from the recent attempt by 12 European super-clubs to create a breakaway league? We will probably never know exactly what went on in their discussions, but it looks like a classic case of “Group Think”. This occurs when people with the above-mentioned power hold self-convincing debate, using limited information and a lack of thought diversity in the room.
As General George S Patton is reputed to have said:
“If everyone is thinking alike, then someone’s not thinking”
How could they have got this so wrong and have to U-turn and eat humble pie? The presence of just one fan, one journalist, one pundit and the odd manager and player, would have made all the difference to their rational decision making. It would have saved them a whole heap load of angst.
Lessons to be learnt – part one
It is a great lesson to be learnt, that even people with the ultimate power of enterprise ownership can’t just decide to say and do what they like. You might argue that they can, but it’s not without consequence as we saw this week.
When a group of people spend a lot of time with each other they quickly become homogenised which automatically reduces the diversity in the room. They all start drawing the same conclusions from the information supporting their decisions. We all do this because it’s easier to operate in a room where we all agree and get along. It happens naturally with all teams. The trick is not necessarily to change the people in the team, it’s to deliberately invite in new diverse thinking. If you add greed and large egos to the group mix you can end up with lethal decision blindness.
Lessons to be learnt- part two
The other great lesson from this week is the power of “the people” who were ignored and adversely affected. Fans, pundits, managers, players, politicians and the media all rallied. They demonstrated that the masses do have power to drive change if they’re passionate enough.
The real challenge for an organisation, is that many employees are not as passionate as football fans and don’t push back and get the board to change. This doesn’t stop employees becoming disenfranchised and checking out literally or metaphorically, but mostly silently. This can leave a senior team or board self-validating their decisions based on the lack of passionate objection.
The more leadership power and authority we have, the greater level of diversity and challenge we need to invite into our thinking.
By Colin Dulson – Managing Director at Berrison Ltd
If you would like to know more about how Berrison can help please contact us: connect@berrison.com
