How often have you heard the statement "management by committee"? And isn't it always said in derision? Like it's a bad thing. That's what makes a recent article in Wired Magazine so interesting.

A few weeks ago I was again reminded of the power of committees. Or in this case, teams. My management team participating in a training session. it was an exercise in what to keep if you are stranded in Greenland with a few of your closest friends. I've done this before with a simulated river rafting trip.

The point of the exercise is that a group almost always makes better decisions than individuals. And most of the time the group does significantly better than even the best individual. That's what happened in our group. So, even though it is unlikely that I will be stranded in the frozen arctic with my management team, this exercise gave us an opportunity to evaluate our collective decision making and compare it to each individual. It isn't embarrassing that I scored so much worse by myself. It's enlightening.

So, this Wired article points out that CEOs don't have a corner on smart. And that groups always do better than an individual. That leaves some big, nagging questions. Why do we rely so heavily on individuals? And why do we organize ourselves in such an inefficient way?

We should be building teams, organizing around teams and relying on teams. I need to give this more thought and work..........
5:13:18 PM    comment []