Page 86 - Harvard Business Review (November-December, 2017)

online system or a third party. Research indicates that In general, therefore, we suggest that CEOs avoid
management consultants, for example, can play this delegating input on strategic decision making to
role effectively—provided they are explicitly hired for groups of only four or five people. To be sure, smaller
that purpose. teams reduce coordination and communication costs
Deploying larger teams. CEOs often rely heavily and reach consensus faster. But larger teams have
on a kitchen cabinet or an executive committee con- more information-processing capacity and a greater
sisting of just three or four trusted colleagues. But in diversity of perspectives. We recommend enlisting
a small team, a dissenter may well be a lonely voice. 10 to 14 executives when it comes to debating the
A review of 97 studies in social psychology showed company’s long-term strategy. (More than 14 is inad-
that single-person minorities consistently had min- visable, because members of very large teams tend
imal influence on majority opinions, because they to disengage.)
were easily discounted as reflecting an idiosyncratic Calibrating diversity. In addition to enlarging the
perspective. In a team of four, therefore, three people strategy-making team, companies should increase its
who agree are inclined to dismiss the differing opin- diversity. More than two decades’ worth of research
ion of the fourth person, even though she represents demonstrates that diverse groups produce more in-
25% of the team. The good news is that it takes only novative and creative solutions, are better at solving
two to get a hearing: Research shows that in a team complex problems, and are more capable of incorpo-
of 12, people will pay attention if only two members rating novel information. But diversity must be care-
disagree, even though they represent less than 17% fully calibrated. Consider the two teams in the exhibit
of the team. “Make Sure Your Teams Have Subgroups.” On Team 1,
every member is demographically unique. Team 2,
however, has two distinct subgroups. Research by
one of us (Vermeulen) shows that teams with sub-
groups are more likely to develop alternative courses
of action, because the probability is greater that no
dissenter will be alone.
Modeling doubt. Executives can make dissent safer
for subordinates by expressing their own doubts about
RETHINK HOW YOU COUNT VOTES a current strategy. To be sure, leaders are not used to
doubting themselves—a situation reinforced by the
A team of three must recommend whether its company should change fact that followers expect them to be decisive and con-
its core technology. Managers agree that this should happen only if both fident. But the payoff for occasionally admitting some
of two criteria are met. What this team recommends will depend on fallibility can be significant.
how the members’ votes are counted. Consider this example from a large European air-
line. The top management team had been planning
CRITERION #1 CRITERION #2 CONJUNCTIVE a major new investment for one of its key divisions.
FURTHER PROCEDURE During the final meeting with the three senior exec-
THE NEW
INVESTMENT IN THE TECHNOLOGY IS (TALLY BY
OLD TECHNOLOGY LIKELY TO IMPROVE MEMBER): SWITCH utives involved in the plan, the CEO decided to make
IS NEEDED TECHNOLOGIES? sure that everybody was really on board. He stood up
and declared that he was willing to proceed, but he
TEAM MEMBER 1 YES YES YES thought they should know that he felt unsure about
it. After a short silence, another executive spoke up,
admitting that he, too, had been having doubts. He
was swiftly followed by a third person, who carefully
TEAM MEMBER 2 YES NO NO explained his reasons for lacking confidence in the
venture’s chances of success. It appeared that of the
four people in the room, only one really wanted the
project to go ahead.
TEAM MEMBER 3 NO YES NO Yet until then, none of them had openly opposed
the investment. Not until the CEO’s public admission
of doubt did the other executives feel psychologi-
DISJUNCTIVE cally safe enough to admit reservations and surface
PROCEDURE (TALLY arguments to end the course of action. The team
BY CRITERION): YES YES
SWITCH abandoned the project, and the division concerned
TECHNOLOGIES?
remained one of the corporation’s most profitable.

NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2017 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW 115