There is a management paradox that explains a surprisingly large number of bad collective decisions. It was introduced in 1974 by Professor Jerry Harvey — and named after a true story.
A family is sitting on a porch on a hot Texas day. Out of boredom, someone suggests: "Why don't we drive to Abilene for lunch?" Although nobody wants to drive for an hour in the heat in a beat-up car without air conditioning, everyone agrees just not to seem disagreeable or boring. The trip turns out to be terrible. And upon returning, it turns out that each person individually was against it, but nobody said so out loud — everyone thought the others wanted to go.
In organizations, this happens regularly. At a meeting, a decision is discussed — firing an employee, launching an unverified project, approving a budget. Deep down, each participant has doubts, but seeing that the others seem to agree, they stay silent, not wanting to be that dissenting voice. As a result, the group unanimously chooses what none of those present wanted.
The key difference from group pressure in the classical sense: here, nobody forces anyone. People do not act against their opinion out of fear of an overt conflict — they act mistakenly believing that their opinion contradicts the group's opinion, when in fact it coincides.
What helps: explicitly asking for each person's opinion individually before the general discussion, introducing the role of "devil's advocate" on a rotational basis, and anonymous preliminary voting before an open discussion of the decision.
A unanimous decision is not always a sign of agreement. Sometimes it is a sign that nobody risked being the first to tell the truth.