Although this article https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/how-mitigate-groupthink-agile-teams wasn't talking about virtual teams, this concept of groupthink could happen in virtual teams and is something to watch out for. This article talks about the concept of groupthink along with its symptoms, ways to notice a team is in groupthink, and ways to limit groupthink.
What stood out to me, is how as humans, we tend to gravitate towards people similar to us -- to a certain point that we gravitate towards people that have similar cognitive styles as ourselves. This could be harmful for a group who have members that all think the same. This article also places emphasis on the notion that their needs to be diversity in teams. A part from cultural diversity, there is also a need to incorporate different people who process information differently. Such as people who are visual learners, or people who prefer analytical information. This can create different approaches to problems.
I also thought that having people in the group who are devil's advocate, was a thing teams should be reminded to do. It can help limit group think since it gives people who were thinking differently than the main speaker, an opportunity to speak up in the group. Another key point was for scrum masters to use Containers, Differences, and Exchanges theory in order to mitigate groupthink. Using these factors, Managers would be able to "influence group dynamics by changing one or more of the CDE factors. For example, a manager can change the difference factor by adding a team member with a different technical specialty or personality. Likewise, the exchange factor can be changed by increasing or decreasing the time or budget of individual sprints."
Although this article https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/how-mitigate-groupthink-agile-teams wasn't talking about virtual teams, this concept of groupthink could happen in virtual teams and is something to watch out for. This article talks about the concept of groupthink along with its symptoms, ways to notice a team is in groupthink, and ways to limit groupthink.
What stood out to me, is how as humans, we tend to gravitate towards people similar to us -- to a certain point that we gravitate towards people that have similar cognitive styles as ourselves. This could be harmful for a group who have members that all think the same. This article also places emphasis on the notion that their needs to be diversity in teams. A part from cultural diversity, there is also a need to incorporate different people who process information differently. Such as people who are visual learners, or people who prefer analytical information. This can create different approaches to problems.
I also thought that having people in the group who are devil's advocate, was a thing teams should be reminded to do. It can help limit group think since it gives people who were thinking differently than the main speaker, an opportunity to speak up in the group. Another key point was for scrum masters to use Containers, Differences, and Exchanges theory in order to mitigate groupthink. Using these factors, Managers would be able to "influence group dynamics by changing one or more of the CDE factors. For example, a manager can change the difference factor by adding a team member with a different technical specialty or personality. Likewise, the exchange factor can be changed by increasing or decreasing the time or budget of individual sprints."