Enhancing Strategic Decision-Making: Lessons from History
Abstract
Dissent is a critical part of the democratic process in America. To establish and protect democracy, dissenting viewpoints must be integrated into a coherent national strategy. Leading strategic teams to make effective decisions requires the leader to develop a group culture that not only tolerates but elicits dissent and molds strategic coherence out of differing opinions and priorities. Strategic leaders must proactively elicit dissent as part of their team process or the decision-making process will break down and groupthink will ensue. Dissent occurs in two types, internal to the decision-making team, and external to it. Both are important, but effectively integrated internal dissent both improves the decision-making process and can pre-empt the need for external dissent. The main outcome of failed strategic decision-making is groupthink. History is full of examples of leaders who dissented on vital strategic decisions but were overruled by groupthink, resulting in disaster on a national scale. This paper will investigate historical decision-making examples to illuminate the democratic underpinnings of dissent, and the breakdown in decision-making process that results in groupthink and disaster.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 16, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA561460
Entities
People
- David W. Murphy
Organizations
- United States Army War College