Only ten years ago, American author and lecturer, Susan Cain, wrote an article in The New York Times called The Rise of the New Groupthink. She made a strong argument against the rising tide of groupthink in our culture. It began,
“SOLITUDE is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place. Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.”
Fast-forward one decade (& one pandemic) later
Who knew a virus would both upend and further validate Cain’s point of view? The pandemic, especially in lockdown mode, became a catalyst for how we work. Solitude IS – or at least forcibly became – IN fashion. Even those who still worked in teams also began to work solo at home. Goodbye to offices without walls and personal space. Hello to a different way of collaboration and the exchange of ideas.
[Read more…] about How the pandemic helped liberate companies from “brainstorming” and “groupthink”
