Quiet refers to the New Groupthink, the value system holding that creativity and productivity emerges from groupwork rather than individual thought. Have you experienced this in your own workplace?

I have not experienced it in the workplace but have participated in it in organizations to which I belong. I have had both good and bad experinces with it. With the right group it works very well as more ideas surface than one person can think of but it has to be a group that is very compatible and comfortable with each other and no one is trying to be the hero. I have also seen it where one or two individuals will run rough shod over any idea that is not their own.

This is very big at my workplace right now. Trends come and go but the big push is working as a team. We have meetings and working sessions where we 'brainstorm' but it seems that one or two people will take over while everyone else sits quietly.

We worked as a team but the more extroverted ideas usually won out so I don't think it was a true groupthink situation.

No, in libraries it seems that personal innovation is valued, not so much of a group effort.

The recent decision by Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer seems to reinforce this notion. I personally think it's a step backwards especially to force people into situations in which they're not comfortable and then expect them to be productive. This whole innovation in a group idea makes me cringe. The truly innovative can make the process work for everyone. Every problem has a solution, you just have to be invested enough to find it. Even now the word "brainstorm" makes me shudder :)

Yes! And I was called into the pointy-haired boss' office so he could scold me for not being "a team-player in this organization".

I tried to explain my work style, but was disappointed when he refused to listen or respond to me respectfully.

Instead I was threatened with getting fired if I didn't conform.

Fortunately he had to downsize his mortgage office and I was laid off, and I'm now happily working with more evolved people.

I just read a week or two ago about studies showing that brainstorming never did really work.

Me too, Cathy - I just saw the article about it that the author of Quiet Susan Cain wrote in the New York Times; the comments section was very interesting with many people mentioning introverts & extroverts.

Also there was a very good article from last year on The New Yorker Magazine's site newyorker.com about how "brainstorming" doesn't really work. (sorry to use that shudder-worthy word, poornimaa

In fact the definition of "Groupthink" now seems to be that relying on a group decision leads to mistakes & mediocre results; I just Googled the word and the entire first page of results contains negative definitions.

I think this is the article that Lily references http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lehrer

That's the one - thanks, Davina

And now I know we can post links, cool - here's the New York Times article with all the interesting comments: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?pagewanted=all

When I was teaching, we had to attend inservice training. We were ALWAYS put into groups because research said that students learn best in groups. The most aggressive people did all of the talking, although some groups were better than others. I never learned one single thing in those groups. We spent one whole afternoon divided into groups with each group reading part of a chapter, then making a presentation for everyone else. I literally never figured out what the book was about. That was supposed to take the place of reading the book. If I could have actually read it, I would have learned something.

Oh, the infamous inservices... How I hate those, when we have to work in groups. But I found out being the note-taker is a good move that takes some pressure off. That's what I did last time. Usually they aren't group meetings, though, thankfully.