The New Groupthink

Right now, I'm reading Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking by Susan Cain, and I found the section on groupwork very interesting. The author begins by describing the work habits of Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Computers. 

"Wozniak did most of the work inside his cubicle at Hewlett-Packard. He'd arrive around 6:30 am and, alone in the early morning, read engineering magazines, study chip manuals, and prepare designs in his head. After work, he's go home, make a quick spaghetti or TV dinner, then drive back to the office and work late into the night. He describes this period of quiet midnights and solitary sunrises as 'the biggest high ever'. His efforts paid off on the night of June 29, 1975, at around 10:00 pm, when Woz finished building a prototype of his machine. He hit a few keys on the keyboard - and letters appeared on the screen in front of him. It was the sort of breakthrough moment that most of us can only dream of. And he was alone when it happened.

"Intentionally so. In his memoir, he offers this advice to kids who aspire to great creativity:  'Most inventors and engineers I've met are like me - they're shy and they live in their heads. They're almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone where they can control an invention's design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee. I don't believe anything really revolutionary has been invented by committee. If you're that rare engineer who's an inventor and also an artist, I'm going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is:  Work alone. You're going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you're working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team.'"

The author then contrasts Wozniak's advice with what she calls "the New Groupthink", the current orthodoxy in many businesses whereby they increasingly organize their workforces into teams and open plan offices. 

"The New Groupthink is also practiced in our schools, via an increasingly popular method of instruction called 'cooperative' or 'small group' learning. In many elementary schools, the traditional rows of seats facing the teacher have been replaced with 'pods' of four or more desks pushed together to facilitate countless group learning activities. Even subjects like math and creative writing, which would seem to depend on solo flights of thought, are often taught as group projects....

"The way forward, I'm suggesting, is not to stop collaborating face-to-face, but to refine the way we do it. For one thing, we should actively seek out symbiotic introvert-extrovert relationships, in which leadership and other tasks are divided according to people's natural strengths and temperaments. The most effective teams are composed of a healthy mix of introverts and extroverts, studies show, and so are many leadership structures.

"We also need to create settings in which people are free to circulate in a shifting kaleidoscope of interactions, and to disappear into their private workspaces when they want to focus or simply be alone. Our schools should teach children the skills to work with others - cooperative learning can be effective when practiced well and in moderation - but also the time and training they need to deliberately practice on their own. It's also vital to recognize that many people - especially introverts like Steve Wozniak - need extra quiet and privacy in order to do their best work."

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