How to Cultivate Perspective at Your Organization
Being a leader can be extremely isolating. You’re managing up, you’re managing down, and, perhaps even more challenging, you’re managing yourself. You’re wearing approximately 17 hats, and you barely have time to think or connect with your peers. Amidst all that, perspective might be hard to come by.
A John Hopkins report from 2024 found that leaders who rely on their own workplace perceptions can often have a distorted view of employee well-being, thus making it nearly impossible to meet the true needs of their team. And that’s just one of the risks that come with lack of perspective. Research also shows that the hierarchical nature of organizations can lead to inadvertent groupthink, or the phenomenon that occurs when a group of people collectively make subpar decisions as a result of the urge to conform (or the fear to dissent).
Take, for example, the recent American Eagle campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney. The ad generated significant buzz: it drove widespread media coverage, social engagement, and even a stock surge. But it also stirred intense backlash and a broader cultural dialogue on covert racism, causing brand sentiment to tumble from +50 to -31 (info on this data and more context on the ad can be found at Axios).
What this moment highlights is the value of perspective. A more wide-ranging set of voices—especially those with decision-making power and the safety to challenge groupthink and highlight a different viewpoint—may not only help organizations prevent missteps like this, but also anticipate how decisions and messages will land across different audiences. The ability to see both opportunity and risk in advance can be the difference between momentum and miscalculation, especially when brand reputation and leadership credibility are at stake.
The research clearly shows that In a rapidly-changing world where uncertainty prevails, diverse perspectives are the best offense and defense for organizations. Perspective strengthens organizational culture, helps organizations avoid public crises that can impact their bottom line, increases innovation, and improves problem-solving and decision-making. So, leaders, here are 5 tips to combat groupthink and increase diversity of perspective at your organization.
1. Invite Broader Insights
In order to gain perspective, you need perspectives (plural). When your employees have different lived experiences, they will naturally bring different perspectives to the table. Widen the range of voices—across not just race, gender, or sexuality but also age, geography, religion, class, professional experience, and political beliefs just to name a few—to ensure a fuller spectrum of insights at your organization. But it’s important to note that varied viewpoints alone cannot prevent groupthink. Make sure your organization is diverse across functions, and across rank, too, so that insights can surface across the entire organization.
2. Create Psychological Safety
Don’t just ask your team to share unconventional ideas, create the conditions for them to do so without fear of judgment. Model safety in whiteboard sessions, provide encouragement, and consider all ideas before refining or rejecting them. Encourage iteration over perfection, and use anonymous submissions when necessary to surface unfiltered insights. Safety is absolutely critical when you want to surface perspectives that challenge existing assumptions.
3. Find Your Challenger
If you actively seek perspective, you can sharpen your insights and prevent blind spots. For example, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol and Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright, start most mornings together at the gym, working out and discussing each other’s ideas. This sort of discourse allows you to poke holes in your argument, and see things from a new point of view. Find an outside source who you trust and who is ready to be the Brian to your Scott, and then actively invite their perspective.
4. Embrace the Metaphorical Water Cooler
When was the last time you asked for your IT team’s perspective on your benefits program or the legal department’s input on your marketing campaign? These sorts of fresh perspectives can often be overlooked, but are absolutely invaluable (and they’re easy to collect). Seek these sorts of unexpected insights through informal conversations and, ideally, through more formalized cross-functional meetings and team-bonding chats—especially if your team is remote.
5. Be Mindful About “AI Think”
Encourage your teams to think critically and consider multiple viewpoints to counter any potential bias in AI outputs. Tools can accelerate efficiency, but overreliance risks narrowing thinking and eroding critical thinking skills, as reported by Forbes and The New Yorker. When employees defer too much to AI, their natural perspectives and original ideas can get lost.
It’s important to remember that perspective comes in many forms. Like this email! Consider this email just one way you’re cultivating perspective this week, and bonus points to the leaders who are already putting these ideas into practice.
Cultivating perspective takes commitment and intentionality; it doesn’t happen by accident. The returns on this commitment—innovation, resilience, and stronger decisions—can help organizations gain a competitive advantage in their industry, and act as a powerful antidote to the echo chambers that reinforce groupthink.
We’ve seen the power of perspective firsthand in our own work. At our Institutes, where we convene leaders across functions and industries, we’re able to collectively generate solutions that anticipate blind spots and uncover new opportunities.
Additionally, through our consulting practice, we have found that one of our greatest strategic advantages isn’t necessarily our expertise (although it certainly does help), but our perspective. When organizations entrust us with an organizational challenge, we are able to use our objective vantage point to surface dynamics and patterns that can be difficult to recognize from the inside.
If you’re interested in attending one of our future Institutes or could benefit from the perspective of our team of consultants, head to our website at the link below.
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