How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

Mandate Dissent
In a group setting, you shouldn’t need to seek out devil’s advocates in the same
way—there should already be several different viewpoints in the room. But as I
said earlier, groupthink is a hidden force in most group discussions—so while
one or two people may walk in with genuinely different perspectives, they’ll
have a tendency to fall in with the majority view (whether they’re aware of it or
not). And even if some minority viewpoints do make it into the open,
confirmation bias will lead the majority to undervalue those alternative views.
Nobody’s trying to make bad choices; it’s just how we create harmony and
simplicity in our minds.
So in groups, it’s actually valuable to invite 
everyone
to be a devil’s advocate.
If you make it okay to share contrasting perspectives—or even require everyone
to do so—research suggests that your group will make better decisions.
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What does that look like in practice? Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of
Google, says, “What I try to do in meetings is to find the people who have not
spoken, who often are the ones who are afraid to speak out but have a dissenting
opinion. I get them to say what they really think and that promotes discussion,
and [then] the right thing happens.”
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When I’m in a group that’s discussing an important issue, I actually like to go
one step further. Whether or not I’m chairing the meeting, I suggest that
everyone
—even those who’ve already spoken—answer a thought-provoking
question, such as:
“If there were something we were missing here, what would it be?”
“If there were a completely different way to see this, what would it be?”
“If there were one thing that worried you about this, what would it be?”
The “if” framing of the question is important, because it allows people to be
more speculative and less worried about being “right” before they speak up. And
asking everyone to raise at least one concern makes it entirely acceptable to
surface doubts and queries. That means people don’t get labeled as difficult for
daring to differ. Then, once all the issues are on the table, the group can have an
explicit discussion about how to address each issue and move forward. It’s still
possible to make a mistake—but much less likely.
Peggy, the advertising art director we met in the last chapter, always makes
sure she invites a range of people to provide input on her most important work,
and welcomes their views even when they don’t jibe with her own. “We all have
our biases, so it helps to discuss an issue with people from different backgrounds
—a planner, an account manager, a creative director, or a writer. It’s sometimes
hard to accept their comments, but I’ve learned not to say ‘I don’t agree,’ and to
ask some questions instead. It often happens that someone will make a
suggestion that makes no immediate sense to me, such as adding text to that very
visual air freshener ad I came up with. I don’t think the words are needed,
personally. But then I discover it’s because the client has said they’re worried
that the technical germ-killing benefits of the air freshener won’t be clear to
customers. And honestly, I hadn’t realized that was a worry for the client.” Once
Peggy’s heard and understood the views of her dissenters, she says, she always
does better work.