One of the most annoying situations you can run into at the office is inertia. The belief that something is done, or happens, just because "that's the way it happens." I've lived my corporate life (for better or worse - usually worse, for me) in a relatively idiosyncratic fashion. I have never enjoyed being a 'Yes Man', and if I sensed groupthink, I'd usually ask a question designed to break the logjam, even if I agreed with the emerging groupthink pattern:
don’t be intimidated by high-level obstructionists who temporarily impede progress. If it is an idea whose time has come, obstructionists can be overcome by engaging high-level sponsors or they can be circumvented. Bureaucratic inertia yields to an aggressive parallel approach— quick, precise and simultaneous action.
Sometimes these approaches don't work, and you don't win friends this way.
Winning friends is what moving up the corporate ladder is all about. But so is promoting efficiency and progress, something typically related to individual initiative. I wrote about Schumpeter and entrepreneurialism a few months ago. Schumpeter showed how the entrepreneur keeps markets moving forward and promotes progress. He essentially said "Be an agent of change for efficiency and improvement."
A solution to groupthink companies could utilize is to designate, on a revolving basis, one person to be 'Captain Obvious'.
The position would have to revolve in order to avoid having the job being defined by the job - which is all too common in modern companies. Each person holding the title would approach it differently, improving its viability.
The goal of Captain Obvious would be to keep even large organizations 'thinking small'. Too often we let things happen simply because "that's how things are done." We shouldn't. The colloquial term "Captain Obvious" is sometimes used as a pejorative. While many believe the role of Captain Obvious is redundant, in corporate culture it is an excellent title for someone who can articulate what is so clearly evident, nobody else sees it.
There are, of course, other solutions companies can employ such as cultural auditing. Another would be to designate a "Yoda" in every meeting. While a "Yoda" could keep meetings on track, the larger issue of finding a way out of poorly thought out policy decisions seems to suggest a full-time role for a Captain Obvious.
There is always a way to make sure a good idea gets a positive hearing. It's not always straightforward. You can't always put an idea out there and expect it to be accepted. But even if it is rejected, there are ways to get from where you are to where you want to be. When I was younger, I felt the best way to achieve this was to simply oppose the groupthink and do things my way. It would be useful if companies and groups were willing to accept the people who think differently as part of the culture. I have often been told that diversity isn't about ethnicity, it's about ways of thinking. But corporate culture, even in adopting diversity, has yet to understand that good ideas often come from places management tends to ignore.
