When teams are collaborating to design a project solution, they risk falling into groupthink for two reasons:
1. they have worked projects in the past, all using one approach.
2. the team is dominated by one or two strong personalities.
The warning signs are:
1. The team rapidly makes decisions.
2. Only one or two approaches are considered.
3. There is no questioning.
4. A few people dominate the discussion.
When this occurs, the team leader should start asking questions to provoke more out of the box thinking, such as: What if we could not do X, what would be an alternative? Let's start with a blank slate. How would you approach the design from scratch. He/she should also encourage others in the group to give their opinions.
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