The Common Knowledge Effect in Decision Making Teams

"Common sense is what tells us the world is flat"

I've taught team process and performance in various forms to audiences ranging from undergraduate college students to senior executives. A common comment (usually at the start of class) is that teamwork is common sense and there is no need for spending class time discussing it.

I've always found it telling that I rarely hear this from individuals with significant work and team experience. It appears that team work IS common sense until you have the experience of trying to actually do it.

If team work is common sense, why is working in teams so hard? The answer "Because they aren't as smart as me" is not really a tenable answer for this question. In fact, the real answer is because common sense actually gets in the way of effective team process. Certain social dynamics that help us process information and communicate as individuals actually hinder our ability to function well in teams.

A good example of common sense getting in the way of team performance is the common knowledge effect. The common knowledge effect was introduced in a 1993 study by Gigone & Hastie. They found that teams tend to focus on shared information when making decisions. Information held by more members before team discussion has more influence on team judgments than information held by fewer members. Teams are formed in order to capture the unique expertise of each team member when faced with complex problems. However, unique information is frequently ignored or not even shared during the team discussion.

What does this have to do with common sense? Simple, common sense is what tells us that good conversation is conversation that reinforces similarities. When we meet a stranger, we work to find some common tie that we can use to make a connection. Perhaps we have a mutual friend, went to the same college, or follow the same sports teams. Once we find that similarity, or common knowledge, we dwell on it as a way to start building a relationship.

Sharing common knowledge is a great way to build a relationship. We all know this. It is common sense.

Sharing common knowledge is also how teams often make sub-optimal decisions. It is the pooling of unique knowledge that enables a team to excel. Individual common sense leads to team dysfunction.

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