About organizations and people from 'Genesis' ("Bereshit") - Tower of Babel and Groupthink

"Man is a small world, the world is a big man, and what is in it is in it" (Avot Derby Natan, L.A.).

The book of Genesis, which the Jewish people re-read every ‘simchat torah’, is a story of failures and new beginnings, chaos and order, and essentially people and organizations that come together to form an integrated system.

Tower of Babel and Groupthink 

From the chapter of Genesis it appears that the greatest challenges for God and man alike are relationships. Humanity as it is today was formed by using blame and murder.

 In the weekly Torah portion of Noah hoever, there is an attempt to correct this by coming together to create a huge project, the first engineering structure. Construction of a city and tower with it’s ‘head’ in the sky.

There is a common, ambitious and defined goal, there is an organizational structure. The participants have to deal with the limiting constraints of the terrain (no stones) by developing a new technology (baked bricks). It all seemed perfect. 

God, on the other hand, viewed this ‘organization’ differently and created disorder by giving everyone different languages thereby, preventing them from continuing to communicate effectively.

Why did God take such a dramatic step and make it difficult for the people? The problem that the Torah emphasizes is uniformity and unity of opinions. The tower was supposed to be a kind of "Big Brother", overseeing each and every person to maintain conformity. This is not what God wanted. This is not created in his image.

The danger in uniformity is a phenomenon called "thinking together" or Groupthink. In Israeli society, which has marked 47 years since the Yom Kippur War, the trauma of the event has been burned deep into our society. The failure of the intelligence services is attributed to a ‘unified idea’ that the Syrians would not go to war without the Egyptians and the Egyptians would not attack without long-range planes. Any person who violated this premise was chastised and quickly had their ideas shut down.

Psychologist Irwin Janis, who has researched the subject of "Groupthink," cites many examples from American history, including the failure of Operation Bay of Pigs, which was designed to overthrow Fidel Castro's regime. All of President Kennedy's advisers were educated at the most elite universities and yet were afraid to express an opposing opinion to that of the president. On top of this, the president's brother, Robert Kennedy, informed everyone that the president had already decided to carry out the operation. Another example is the Challenger space shuttle disaster, which exploded just minutes after taking off. NASA personnel, who had previously enjoyed an image of "almost zero malfunctions", were very eager to launch the shuttle as it had already been delayed for several days due to technical malfunctions. A day before the scheduled take-off date, one of the engineers expressed concern about a critical component in the engine that could endanger human life. At the end of the day it was decided to ignore the warning and the result was tragic.

There are a variety of ways to avoid "Groupthink": crowd wisdom, consulting outside experts, a manager expressing an opinion at the end, appointing a person as "Devil’s Advocate", using de Bono's six thinking hats and more.

A team can produce synergy and there is a huge advantage to group based thinking provided we know how to manage it correctly. True listening and going with your heart will almost always, lead to quality decisions. A group must be formed on the basis of a common goal, common basic values and accepted principles of action. These are the basics. The organizational culture in the group should be based on free thought, and the ability to express opinion without fear. The delicate balance between unity and teamwork and independent thinking and personal expression, is the art of leadership.

As an Air Force graduate, I remember the motto that until a decision has been made, everyone has the right to express a free opinion and opposing ideas. Once a decision has been made, everyone should be aligned. '

“I take as my guide the hope of a saint:

 in crucial things, unity-

in important things, diversity-

in all things, generosity.”

"(President George W. Bush Snr)

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