The behavioral studies basically bear out a combination of what she's saying and what you're saying. Essentially: the quality of a team's output tends to appro

The behavioral studies basically bear out a combination of what she's saying and what you're saying. Essentially: the quality of a team's output tends to approach the lowest common denominator within the team, which, by definition, is lower quality than the output of the team's best member. Conversely, the individual contributor's output is improved by consideration of outside perspectives -- be they provided by team members, bosses, consultants, etc. In essence, the most functional structure is a team in which each member has a clearly defined role to contribute. You're not forcing each decision to be group-thunk; rather, you're allowing each member to excel at what he or she excels in, then coming together to integrate and discuss. Design by consensus is almost always a recipe for failure. It's important to distinguish between consensus-seeking (bad) and input-seeking (good). A productive group helps the individual refine and improve his work. An unproductive group debates every piece of work until it finally settles on something that nobody's too unhappy with (and often, that nobody's too thrilled with).