How new is this insight? The failure of teams of highly capable individuals is often due to egocentric silver-haired gorillas in the room: >They spent excessiv

How new is this insight? The failure of teams of highly capable individuals is often due to egocentric silver-haired gorillas in the room: >They spent excessive time in abortive or destructive debate, trying to persuade other team members to adopt their own view, and demonstrating a flair for spotting weaknesses in others' arguments. This led to the discussion equivalent of 'the deadly embrace'. They had difficulties in their decision making, with little coherence in the decisions reached (several pressing and necessary jobs were often omitted). Team members tended to act along their own favourite lines without taking account of what fellow members were doing, and the team proved difficult to manage. In some instances, teams recognised what was happening but over compensated - they avoided confrontation, which equally led to problems in decision making.