Years ago, a longtime friend of the Concord Magazine observed, "How is it that so many candidates for the Board of Selectmen seem to be just wonderful people with great values and ideas while they're campaigning. But once they're elected, they all seem to get some kind of a brain transplant. They become virtually unrecognizable, and start doing things we couldn't have imagined." We believe this is Group Think in all its sad glory, the disease this current Board of Selectmen are infected with at the level of 80% morbidity.
Since he mentioned this, we can't help but think about it every time a new selectman is elected. Will the brain transplant take again this time? Or will this individual reject it and remain outside of Group Think?
According to the AllPsych Online's Psychology Dictionary, "Group Think [is t]he tendency for members of a cohesive group to reach decisions without weighing all the facts, especially those contradicting the majority opinion." BusinessDictionary.com states that "Group Think is said to be the reason why intelligent and knowledgeable people make disastrous decisions."
We suspect that Elise Woodward might be difficult to infect with the Group Think brain transplant. She clearly has her own way of doing things, shown for example by the very discrete and quiet campaign she ran -- she was not going to do what the other candidates did simply to match them; she had her own way and followed it. And it worked: Woodward garnered the most votes of all three candidates.
A principal in a prominent Boston architecture firm, we suspect she can be decisive and clear, knowing her own mind, strengths and capacities. Seeing her in public during the campaign, she exhibited real poise and calm with an underlying sense strength that she didn't need to flex... and altogether quite natural.
Those who do not buy into Group Think are first courted, then argued with, and eventually rejected and punished by the group. We see this strongly in how the uninfected, independent-thinking 20% of the current BOS has been abominably treated by her peers for going on six years now.
Will Woodward eventually come to accept the brain transplant? Only time will tell, but we will give her all the best wishes she needs to keep her own (undoubtedly fine) brain intact and functioning for her as an individual. This is the perfect time for her to be listening to citizens who have alternate, varied views -- before the full press of Group Think is on. Congratulations go to her for run, and for her win as well.
(Link to the Woodward campaign website; link to election results)
