Recognizing and Working Outside of Organizational Echo Chambers
The signs, risks and how to shift thinking to depart them for smarter decision making
Echo chambers don't just happen online. They happen inside organizations.
What then, can be done to increase the awareness of them, understand the risks and successfully address the problems they create.
“Although decisions can often be made more easily in echo chambers, leaders should learn how to break out of their comfort zones of agreement in order to make better decisions,” wrote Ryan MacTaggart at EDUCAUSE Review.
“In short, an echo chamber is the intellectual environment that people create to pad themselves from disagreement and to believe that their opinions are shared and correct,” he added.
These thinking swamps can deceive us into believing we have a firm, thorough grip on the full reality, a belief that may end up being disproven.
“Any relationships based on shared interests and goals inevitably create a community, and a unity, of shared beliefs,” says Maria Chamberlain, the president at Acuity Total Solutions, a facility management, including cybersecurity, company.
“In this way, I think echo chambers are built into our nature, and that's why they can be dangerous, especially at work.”
She elaborates.
“Love it or hate it, each workplace has a culture. We have shared goals to accomplish certain tasks. We come to agreements about the best way to do things, who our competition is, and what's good or bad for the company. That creates biases.”
Word use and phrasing is also worth paying attention to and considering.
“Jargon can be a good indicator of an echo chamber,” says Max Weisman, a political communications director and the principal at Halom Strategies, which provides media training, branding workshops and group coaching to enhance public presence and storytelling.
“When individuals stop sounding like individuals and are sharing sentiments with similar jargon-leaning language, this mind trap may be at play.”
Learning how to spot the presence of them is an ever-important task.
“In the age of information, I think the most obvious sign that we're developing a blind spot is when we're constantly referring to, and relying on, the same sources of information and workplace biases,” Chamberlain says.
“We encourage diversity in our information sources, we welcome contrasting opinions for the sake of analysis and we remind each other not to rely on cliches,” she says of her company’s efforts to prevent problem thinking.
Organizational leaders can additionally create a territory that makes it natural and acceptable to speak up when echo chambers are developing or thriving.
“By directly calling attention to this or subtly asking questions of individuals with aggressive follow-up questions, it can challenge people to adopt free thought without succumbing to groupthink,” Weisman asserts.
This is important because of what it can prevent, a potentially false assumption.
“Echo chambers make it easy to think that we all share the same opinion,” says Shlomo Slatkin, a rabbi and founder at The Marriage Restoration Project. “This is a symbiotic way to view others and is problematic.
“On the other hand, forcing employees to share emotions publicly is not safe nor is it conducive to creating an open environment.
“A more effective approach would be to have private one-on-one conversations where employees could express their opinions without judgment, or a group community dialogue where a timer is set and each person can share what their opinion is on a particular topic.”
This is important, Slatkin insists, because if it isn’t done or the norm, risks remain.
“Until employees can open up without fear of their disclosure being used against them, there will still be a stigma,” he points out.
“Trainings and community-building exercises and retreats are also good ways to foster a safe environment that encourages a community feel and acceptance of everyone.”
There are common and problematic risks of existing, and remaining in, groupthink.
“People can get defensive of critical analysis because they feel it questions their ability or decisions,” Chamberlain says. “This is dangerous because that thinking can lead to underreporting of threats and an unwillingness to discuss mistakes.”
She provided an example.
“Entire industries have been lost to companies that were considered too dominant to fail,” Chamberlain says. “Remember Blockbuster video? They didn't take Netflix seriously, and even had an opportunity to buy them, but they believed that movie-by-mail was a niche service that would never out-perform their retail locations. Oops."
Brainpower gets wasted and thinking is dumbed down.
“Similar to cults, workplace echo chambers punish free thought and individualism,” Weisman says. “This is detrimental to the individual's growth, promotes homogeneity and stifles creativity.”
Influencing a shift in thinking to depart echo chambers for more clear, smarter and effective decision making can be accomplished.
“The first step in leaving the chamber and making better decisions must be the awareness that a chamber exists,” MacTaggart wrote.
“Create a culture of free thinking,” Weisman suggests. “Promoting individuals to share their opinions, lead individual and group projects and take various role-specific leadership opportunities will disband echo chambers and instill individual growth with collective rewards.”
Increasing awareness is helpful.
"Well, first and foremost, articles like this one are important to educate people that the problem exists,” Chamberlain says. "It's good practice to normalize discussing possibilities and differing opinions. If you burn that mentality into the culture, it will be less likely anyone takes the exercise personally. It's just another day at the office.”
When uncertainty and hesitancy is present, “coworkers can be encouraged with anonymous surveys and diverse teams,” she proposes. “Third-party reviews and industry peers are also great sources of feedback and new ideas.”
Chamberlain offers her strongest recommendation for the challenge.
“The most important part to breaking down echo chambers is to let people have their opinion,” she advises. “The world is changing fast and hearing people out… may equip you to adapt to changes."
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