Aesoph Group

By Christopher Aesoph, MA

       When people do things in groups, there are sometimes unintended consequences. Take for instance, the Millennium Bridge, which crosses the River Thames in London, a beautiful and elegant footbridge which opened in 2000. It was closed immediately after it opened because it began to sway to the point that people who walked on it were feeling frightened and ill. It reopened two years later and cost $8.9 million to fix.

Most people who hear this story think immediately of the army maxim to not march in step over bridges. This makes sense from a weight distribution standpoint. But what was overlooked in this case was the tendency of people to fall in step by accident. If a bridge sways, even a little, people compensate by walking into the swaying motion, by stepping in time. And so the swaying grows, and more people compensate by adjusting their gait to the movement, and this builds quickly into a problem.

The same is true of the way people think. Put a group of people together in a room, and if one or two of them are bright, vivacious, outgoing, or even slightly better looking, everyone one else will be at least temporarily swayed by those people. Walking in step, even in our thinking, comes naturally to most of us as a way of creating harmony.

This is why, when you ask any group of people to be creative, ask them to work on the problem alone for a few minutes. Have them jot down their ideas on paper. Then the group will be less likely to be swayed.