THIS week we join in the theme chosen for Nobel Laureate Week 2016: “Celebrating Excellence: Transforming Lives,” where we honour and pay tribute to our two Nobel Laureates, Sir Arthur Lewis and Derek Walcott.
Our Nobel Laureates were able to navigate many difficulties as they pursued excellence and achieved greatness. For this reason, we return to combat the issue of groupthink that we peered into last week (“Looking Deeper”), which can hamper the outcome of group decisions.
If we improve the quality of our own decisions, we are one step closer to becoming like our Nobel Laureates. When we improve the quality group decisions, we further magnify the benefit. Would you agree that is a worthy goal?
As you may already know, computer systems are sometimes affected by software bugs which introduce errors. When you debug a faulty program, you find and remove such bugs. Antibugging is another method, which involves developing software in a manner that actively resists bugs. Fewer bugs means better quality software, and less effort needed in dealing with errors.
We have two examples in our Nobel Laureates, and another two from software development. How could be use that knowledge to improve the decisions that we take as a group and actively avoid groupthink?
Here are two suggestions:
(1) Celebrate and reward new ideas that achieve the group’s objective;
(2) Assign someone the role of finding fault with your decisions.
A culture of creativity, of exploring new ideas, could lead to improvements and excellence. Allowing each person the opportunity to be the “nay-sayer” and to actively resist the group, should also transform your thinking and decision making. In either case, you have the possibility to exert true leadership, and to improve decisions.
To share your views, contact the author at: www.datashore.net or via The Voice.
About the Author
Dr.Lyndell St. Ville is the Owner/Chief Technology Officer of Datashore, an ICT business based in Saint Lucia, which provides business intelligence solutions and assists with your programming and policy development.