Real Case Stories

In this HBR article  , the author talks about using Structured Debates as a technique to eliminate Groupthink. One strategy that can significantly help teams avoid the dangers of Groupthink and successfully respond to emerging threats and opportunities is to create structured debates. This is done by randomly assigning different team members to argue opposing points of view. Structured debates can provide an opportunity to rigorously discuss and dispute interpretations of current trends, as well as future predictions, in a kind of organizational “safe mode” that enables teams to explore external risks without putting individual members of the team at internal risk. Randomly assign different team members to argue opposing points of view. Then, at a team meeting , set up a debate with scenarios such as: “Our organization’s mobile app will be obsolete within two years. Here’s what will replace it, and here’s what we need to do now to survive and thrive.” Ask half the team to argu...

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences. src Wiki The term was coined in 1952 by William Whyte, an American business writer who feared that corporate "groupthink" would suppress original thought and entrepreneurialism. Nietzsche once said that Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups. In his book "Groupthink: Psychological studies of policy decisions & fiascoes" author Irving Janis cites an example of a disaster that struck a small mining town of Pitcher, Oklahoma in 1950.  A few days before disaster struck the local mining engineer had warned the in...

During Christmas , Dec 2015, Finland came up with a Calendar with their own set of country themed Emojis. The Finland emojis illustrate Finnish emotions and strengths, as well as vices, and are part of the Christmas calendar published by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on ThisisFINLAND , the country brand website. The complete list of emojis are available here . Some good ones are   THE ORIGINAL SANTA. The feeling of the never-ending wait for Santa Claus. The real Santa comes from Finland. He has always lived in Korvatunturi, Lapland. Not the North Pole!  HEADBANGER. The feeling of banging your head. In Finland, heavy metal is mainstream. There are more heavy metal bands in Finland per capita than anywhere else.  BUS STOP.  Finns respect the privacy and personal space of others, and expect the same in return. We tend not to sit down next to anyone if another seat is available. When talking to a Finn, don’t stand too close – unless you want to se...

In Multiple research it has been found that people prefer curvy objects over sharp corners. The rationale is that objects with sharper corners may convey a sense of threat at non conscious level.  In this research   people were exposed to 140 pairs of similar objects and the major difference between them was curvature of their contour.  The participants liked the curved objects more than the sharply cornered ones. Also research on car interior designs suggests that curved designs are preferred to straight designs

Psychologists have found that we are more concerned with how long a queue is than how fast a line is moving. Given a choice, we would opt for a shorter line than a faster moving line even if the wait times are identical.  That is why Disney hides the length of its lines by wrapping them around buildings and using long winding queues.

Some time ago, Houston airport executives received a lot of complaints about long waiting time at baggage claims. They reacted by increasing the number of handlers which reduced the time but still the complaints persisted. When they analysed it further they realized that it took 1 minute for passengers to travel from the plane to Baggage claim and 7 minutes to get their bags. So the airport smartly reversed this by moving the arrival gates away from the baggage claim counter. This resulted in passengers walking for 7 minutes to the Baggage claim and 1 min to collect their bags.  This resulted in almost zero complaints src Nytimes story

At a large Multistoreyed office building, people complained about long waiting times for the Elevator during peak hours. Increasing the number of elevators was not feasible so an alternative solution was needed. The management called a meeting of the staff to brainstorm. A young employee who was a graduate in psychology observed that people complained about waiting only a few minutes for the elevator. The main issue was boredom rather than elevator performance.  He suggested installing Mirrors in the elevator boarding areas so that people could be busy looking at themselves or looking at others. This was promptly done at a very low cost. The complaints stopped immediately. Related reading Defining the problem of Elevator wait times

Netflix's HR practice is so revolutionary that Sheryl Sandberg called it one of the most important documents ever to come out of Silicon Valley. The company is treated like a Pro Sports team which means Stars are hired in every position Key Highlights of the policy are Face to Face 360 degree feedback. People who are not good enough are given a very generous severance package Attendance is not measured. No 9am to 5pm policy No Clothing policy  The company's Expense policy is 5 words - "Act in Netflix's best interest"  eg: Travel as you would as if it were your own money. Employees booked their trips online on their own. Vacation Policy - No policy, take a vacation whenever you wish to. If you work in accounting or finance, you shouldn’t plan to be out during the beginning or the end of a quarter, because those are busy times. If you want 30 days off in a row, you need to meet with HR. Senior leaders are urged to take vacations and to let peop...

Kim Scott, ex Googler and now a coach speaks about Guidance and in her view it is the single most important part of managing people. "Apart from giving Guidance it's also important to receive it. Guidance which is basically Praise and Criticism is feedback. She speaks about a tool called Radical Candor. To explain Radical Candor she speaks about an incident in her career. During her early days at Google, she had to make a presentation to the founders and the CEO. The presentation went off very well and Eric Schmidt was ecstatic. After the meeting was over, her boss Sheryl Sandberg walked her back to her office. She spoke about 4 or 5 points about the presentation that she liked and while she was speaking Kim felt that there was something amiss and a criticism was around the corner. Finally Sandberg said "But, you said 'Um' a lot during your presentation". Kim was relieved and said "Ah! No big deal, I know I do that". Sandberg: "Was it ...

In this article from Fastcompany which talks about Microsoft's Radical type of design thinking where the core of the Designing philosophy was to think from a Disabled person's perspective. It talks about how many great inventions happened thinking of the disabled in mind. Pellegrino Turri built the first typewriter, so that his blind lover, could write letters more legibly. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone to support his work helping the deaf. Vint Cerf programmed the first email protocols for the nascent Internet. Electronic messaging was the only seamless way to communicate with his wife, who was deaf, while he was at work. Designing so that the disabled can have universal access—we can create products better for everyone else.  One excellent example is that if you want to create a phone or an app that's easier to interact while driving. You could study people driving with their phones or you could study how Blind people interact with their phones. How ...