It is quite frequent that many people do not have chances to express his or her opinion in a group discussion, and they tend to agree with the decision made by the majority even though they have different ideas. Google has applied ‘Note and Vote’ in its meetings and discussions in order to solve the problem. I would like to analyze the ‘decision making in a group’ and the ‘Note and Vote’ method based on Jake Knapp’s public blog post on the Internet. (https://www.fastcodesign.com/3034772/note-and-vote-how-google-ventures-avoids-groupthink-in-meetings)
The phenomenon I described at the start of my blog is called “Groupthink” in OB; people want to minimize doubts and achieve unanimity in a team by the agreement to group ideas. In order to get rid of groupthink, Google chose to apply “Note and Vote”. Basically, employees have a quiet time to write down their own opinions and then share them to the team. After all team members sharing their ideas, each member commits their votes for the idea on paper and explain why. Finally, the manager of the team makes final decision.
In this way, all the members can get involved into discussion and they are not likely to be influenced by others thoughts so groupthink can be avoided. Even though the final decision is made by the manager, everyone’s voice is heard so the decision may be more rational. In addition, the discussion can be more efficient. Managers set time limit for each part of discussion and require responses from everyone, which helps get more significant results compared to discussing together since people may rely on others and make no contribution.
Groupthink is a common issue that almost every team has, which impacts team’s decision making and development negatively. Though ‘Note and Vote’ is not a perfect solution, it helps avoid groupthink effectively. People can make slight changes to this method according to different situations, then apply it in discussions to get better results.
Word count: 321
Reference:
Knapp, J. (2014, August 26). “Note And Vote”: How Google Ventures Avoids Groupthink In Meetings. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from https://www.fastcodesign.com/3034772/note-and-vote-how-google-ventures-avoids-groupthink-in-meetings