8 Warning Signs That Your Team is Suffering from Groupthink

Have you ever wondered why some teams thrive while others struggle to survive?

Consensus decision-making—so commonly used by facilitators—is often praised for building alignment and buy-in. But can it ever be a bad thing?

Yes, if it slides into groupthink.

What Is Groupthink and Why Does It Matter?

Groupthink is one of the most dangerous blind spots at work - often invisible until it’s too late.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines groupthink as:

First popularized in 1972 by social psychologist Irving L. Janis, groupthink describes what happens when people in a group commit to decisions they don’t truly agree with—simply to avoid tension or conflict.

The result? Teams prioritize harmony over honesty, speed over depth, and consensus over clarity. That combination is a recipe for poor decision-making, costly mistakes, and sometimes catastrophic outcomes.

8 Signs Your Team Might Be Suffering from Groupthink

Janis identified eight “symptoms” of groupthink. If several are present at once, your team could be in trouble:

1. Cohesiveness over freedom – Group unity is valued more than individual expression.

2. Insulated atmosphere – The team shuts itself off from outside perspectives.

3. Biased leadership – Leaders guide outcomes instead of remaining impartial.

4. No evaluation framework – Decisions are made without a standard method for testing ideas.

5. Homogeneity – Members share similar social backgrounds or ideologies, limiting diversity of thought.

6. Stress pressure – The group faces intense deadlines or external pressure to perform.

7. Recent failures – Previous setbacks drive the team to avoid more conflict at any cost.

8. Moral or complex dilemmas – Difficult issues lead to oversimplification instead of critical analysis.

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When these signs appear, the team’s collective intelligence shrinks instead of grows.

Why Groupthink Still Happens Today

Sadly, groupthink is alive and well in today’s workplace - more than ever:

• Remote teams may avoid conflict because it’s harder to navigate virtually.

• Hybrid work pressures often prioritize speed and alignment over depth.

• Crisis environments (economic uncertainty, rapid market shifts) tempt leaders to rush to decisions without full exploration.

Consensus is not the enemy but when it becomes the goal at all costs, it can silence the most valuable voices in the room.

The Role of Critical Voices

Every team needs people who:

• Ask the hard questions

• Challenge assumptions

• Slow down decisions to evaluate options properly

• Point out blind spots

Without them, your team risks making comfortable, fast, but shallow decisions.

The goal is not consensus for its own sake - it’s to grow collective intelligence.

How to Prevent Groupthink

Here’s how to stop groupthink before it takes hold:

• Bring in a professional facilitator. A neutral party with no vested interest in the decision can design processes that encourage challenge, not just agreement.

• Separate idea generation from decision-making. This gives room for creativity before narrowing down options.

• Encourage dissent. Reward team members who raise alternative views.

• Test assumptions. Build in structured methods to evaluate risks and alternatives.

• Ask: What don’t we know? The best teams are curious before they commit.

  
  

Final Thought

Groupthink can turn the most intelligent, creative team into a group of people nodding and smiling while keeping their best ideas to themselves.

Strong facilitation helps avoid this trap by creating psychological safety for truth speaking and a clear, logical decision-making process.

So before your next critical decision, ask yourself:

• Are we prioritizing harmony over honesty?

• Do we have the right processes in place?

  
  

If not, it may be time to bring in a facilitator because the cost of groupthink is always greater than the cost of healthy debate.

Watch this snippet of a documentary-style video on the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster (1986), showing how groupthink and pressure to conform led NASA teams to ignore warnings about the O-ring failure - one of the most cited real-world examples of poor decision-making caused by suppressed dissent.