| Updated:
When companies suffer from groupthink, they miss out on opportunities for growth, innovation and profits. Enter The Provocation People, a left-leaning LSE professor and pro-Brexit, former Free Market MP, to help you embrace dissent
Companies suffer from groupthink – even when they claim to embrace disagreement and dissent. And individuals are often hostile to different perspectives and the people who hold them.
The human condition is linked to conformity and conformity. We all have a deep-rooted desire to fit in and we care what other group members think of us. Very. This leads to herd beliefs being quickly acted upon at the expense of effective decision making.
In a world dominated by radical uncertainty—where advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and synthetic biology are reshaping industries and our lives—businesses are held back when dissenting voices are silenced. Organizations that fail to challenge consensus risk missing out on transformative opportunities for innovation, growth and profitability.
The world is not driven forward by consensus – growth requires difference, risking discomfort, and progress comes from challenging ideas
Enter The provocation peopleour new consulting company based on our own adversarial collaboration. As reluctant provocateurs, Paul and Steve share a common instinct with most people: we prefer agreement. But we also realize that the world is not driven forward by consensus. Growth requires difference, risking discomfort, and progress comes from challenging ideas, not just accepting them. As we rise above these instincts, we’ll help companies do the same—because despite our preferences, agreements alone won’t unlock the innovations we all need.
Our friendship exemplifies the power of adversarial collaboration, where different beliefs are flushed out rather than tucked away. Despite our differing political and intellectual views, our mutual respect, curiosity and humor have created a partnership that transcends ideology. This dynamic is the foundation of The Provocation People and serves as a model for the companies we will work with. In our view, disagreement is not an obstacle but an opportunity for growth.
The pitfalls of groupthink
It was the pitfalls of groupthink that brought us together. There were several ways in which policymakers could have responded to the threat of Covid, and yet the debates around the world focused only on reducing transmission risks across the population through social distancing measures applied to the entire population. We were both convinced that several of these policy responses would cause far more harm than good when the social and economic costs of social distancing are properly accounted for. With each new study showing the damage of two years of social isolation to many people, we feel increasingly vindicated.
But we want to do so much more than say “I told you so”. We are determined that decision-making in public policy and private business breaks free from the shackles of groupthink. And we consider ourselves the perfect messengers to deliver on that. This is because genuine cognitive diversity in organizations requires group members to be willing to listen not only to alternative perspectives but also to the people presenting the ideas—even when we disagree with them on a topic that is important to us.
We first met on a zoom call. Steve met a left-leaning LSE professor and Paul met a Tory MP on the free market. We didn’t think the meeting would last very long. Four years later, and our friendship goes from strength to strength. We disagree on many things. Steve trusts the market much more than Paul, who would like to see much more redistribution than Steve. Steve loves sailing, Paul doesn’t. Paul loves festivals, Steve doesn’t. We like each other because, among other things, we have found each other to be kind and generous.
A rare bromance
Enough about the bromance. The point is that our friendship is quite rare given the human tendency to engage in what psychotherapists call splitting—thinking of people as either good or bad. Some of Paul’s Remainer colleagues at the LSE have asked him how he can be friends with Brexiteer Steve. They can’t look past his views on one issue to even consider that they might agree with him on other issues, much less allow themselves to consider for a moment the fact that he might be a decent guy. Formal education is no antidote to dividing people into ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
We are all drawn to form, and be in, groups in all walks of life where we can all nod in agreement with another rather than shake our heads in disagreement. So the only effective way to really improve cognitive diversity is to make it easier for us to be more receptive to different ideas without having to think too much about it.
The tendency to reject those with different opinions – beliefism – creates echo chambers where innovation is stifled. The Provocation People aims to reduce belief, encourage respectful discourse and diverse perspectives. By doing so, organizations can unlock the full potential of their people and break free from the constraints of groupthink.
At the heart of our approach is a simple but profound principle: transformation is not achieved by suppressing disagreement, but by embracing it. Organizations must transcend groupthink and turn diverse perspectives into a competitive advantage. We will work with companies to integrate cognitive diversity into their cultures, unlocking innovation, increasing productivity and thereby driving competitiveness, profitability and happiness at work.
Steve Baker has 30 years of leadership experience spanning military aeronautics, software engineering in the private sector, parliament and government. He is a municipal councilor and a fellow in RSA. He was the former MP for Wycombe for 14 years, including serving as a minister in the Cabinet Office, Northern Ireland Office and the Department for Exiting the EU.
Paul Dolan wrote the questions used by the ONS to monitor national wellbeing, and is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Happiness by Design and Happy Ever After. Paul was named one of the 100 most influential academics in the world. He has worked with several government bodies and Fortune 500 companies on how to integrate behavioral science into organisations, including HSBC, Pfizer, HMRC, Gallup, Transport for London, the NHS and Google.
